FSU's Roberto Aguayo becomes 1st kicker in 16 years to declare early for NFL Draft

Roberto Aguayo will forgo his senior season at Florida State and enter the 2016 NFL Draft early, the school announced on Wednesday, making him the first kicker to do so since Sebastian Janikowski, another FSU alum, did prior to the 2000 NFL Draft.

Aguayo, 21, was the Lou Groza Award winner, recognizing the nation's best collegiate kicker, in his redshirt freshman season after making 21 of 22 field goals and all 94 of his extra point attempts. While he missed three field goals as a sophomore and five field goals as a junior, he never missed an extra point and leaves FSU as the all-time most accurate kicker over a college career.

By successfully converting 267 of 276 of his kicks, Aguayo's 96.73 percent narrowly edged the previous record of 96.67 set by Nebraska's Alex Henery five years earlier.

"After giving this decision careful thought and meeting with my family and Coach Fisher, I have decided to enter the NFL Draft," Aguayo said in a statement. "These last four years have been nothing short of incredible on and off the field. I have made memories that I will always treasure. One goal when I got here was to graduate, and I'm thankful I was able to earn my degree in Criminology this fall.

"Ever since I was a kid, I have bled Garnet and Gold. When I received a scholarship to play football at FSU from Coach Fisher it was a dream come true and a blessing."

Florida State has a healthy history of successful kickers in the NFL with Janikowski finishing his 16th season with the Oakland Raiders, and Dustin Hopkins and Graham Gano both starting for playoff teams.

Good kickers were tough to come by during the 2015 NFL season with a record amount of misses on extra points after new rules pushed the line of scrimmage from the 2-yard line to the 15-yard line. Kickers missed a combined 71 extra points in 2015 after missing just 37 in the five years prior combined.

While no kicker has declared early for the NFL Draft since Janikowski, a few punters have. Last year, Bradley Pinion of the San Francisco 49ers was the only punter drafted after he declared early from Clemson for the 2015 NFL Draft. Two years earlier, Brad Wing left LSU early, although he wasn't drafted in the 2013 NFL Draft and has since found a role with the New York Giants.

Aguayo received his degree at FSU and was invited to the Senior Bowl as a junior exception, according to Bob Ferrante of 247Sports, but declined the invite.