Adam Zouagui’s path to Kentucky’s starting kicking job runs through a season that looked like a dead end.
Two years ago at Davidson, he went just 4 of 16 on field goals in 2024, a number that would have buried most kickers. He missed 10 of his first 11 tries, endured a game at Dayton in which three of his four field-goal attempts were blocked and the fourth was missed, and eventually lost the job. Then came a stop at South Florida, where he handled kickoffs but never got a field-goal chance.
Now he’s the Wildcats’ No. 1 kicker, and he backed that status with the biggest kick of Kentucky’s season so far: a 52-yard field goal that banked off the left upright and through the goalposts in last Saturday’s upset win at Texas A&M.
“I lost it in the crowd,” Zouagui said. “I was like, ‘OK, yeah, it’s going in,’ and then I heard the doink, and I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’ I saw the refs put their hands up, so we’re good.”
That moment looked improbable enough on its own. But the larger arc of Zouagui’s career may be even harder to believe.
The statistical picture from Davidson was ugly. The top 100 qualified kickers at the FBS level all converted at least 70.8% of their field-goal attempts last season.
Zouagui’s 25% mark in 2024 stood miles away from that standard. Still, Kentucky coach Will Stein said the raw numbers did not tell the whole story.
“I think if you watch the Davidson stuff, he was asked to do literally everything,” Stein said. “He did everything.
He punted, he place-kicked, he kicked off. I mean, half the time you see guys literally like falling in his lap, punting or kicking.
“So, I think the statistics are maybe a little bit misleading, but he’s a really good kicker.”
There were problems beyond the workload, too. Davidson’s snapping issues continued throughout that season, even after the team turned to backup kicker Danny Reyes. After Zouagui was benched from field-goal duties, Reyes made all 10 of his extra points in a 70-48 win over Stetson, but his lone field-goal try, from 24 yards, was also blocked.
A year earlier, with a different snapper, Zouagui had been far more reliable, hitting 7 of 9 field goals and 54 of 55 point-after attempts. The Davidson snapper from the 2024 season has since moved to defensive line.
“I think if he had a cleaner operation in 2024, that season could have gone better for him,” Davidson radio play-by-play announcer Paul Roper said.
After that season, Zouagui transferred to South Florida and turned into a kickoff specialist, converting 61 of 78 kickoffs for touchbacks. He made all three of his PATs there, but field goals remained off the table. When he entered the transfer portal again after the 2025 season, he made his intention clear.
“I had a lot of different schools offer me and obviously just say, ‘Hey come do kickoffs,’ and I was like, ‘No,’” he said. “I’m a field-goal kicker. That’s what I want to do.”
Kentucky special teams coordinator Parker Fleming gave him that shot. The Wildcats also had Jacob Kauwe, who hit 13 of 17 field goals last season, but Fleming told Zouagui the job would be open in camp and settled by performance. Zouagui said that was all he wanted.
“That’s all I wanted,” Zouagui said. “I just wanted an opportunity to come out and compete. Kentucky gave that to me, which I’m grateful for.”
Kauwe’s minor preseason injury gave Zouagui room to seize the moment. Stein said Zouagui kept drilling kicks through fall camp, and even when Kauwe returned, the staff was reluctant to change course.
Kauwe warmed up before the season opener, but Kentucky went with Zouagui. He made his lone field goal and all six extra points in the win over Youngstown State.
A week later, he hit a 39-yard field goal at the end of a sharp two-minute drive before halftime against Alabama, giving Kentucky a 17-13 lead. That helped build the confidence Stein showed in sending him out again at Texas A&M, even after Zouagui had hooked a 39-yard attempt in the second quarter.
Stein has kept the kicking job open each week, and Kauwe could still win it back. But for now, Zouagui has earned the trust of the staff and the right to keep kicking.
After the rocky stretch at Davidson, he said he has learned how to reset fast.
“The biggest thing in kicking … and any real sport is being able to move on to the next play,” he said. “I’ve missed kicks before.
That’s not a new experience for me, so I know how to move on from that. I know how to just focus on the next play, and I have a lot of faith in my ability to be resilient.”
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