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Taking a look into the Arizona State football record book, the name of Luis Zendejas dominates the kicking portion. From 1981 to 1984, Zendejas lived up to his nickname of "Automatic".
A quick look of his records:
Field goals made in a season - 28
Field goals made in a career - 81
PAT percentage - 99.3%
Consecutive games with a field goal - 15
Points in a career - 380
It's that last one that is most remarkable.
Coming into his senior year in 1984, Zendejas was within striking distance of Tony Dorsett's career scoring record of 356 points. After an All-American season in 1983, it was merely a matter of time before there was a new all-time scoring champion.
After a 14-point effort (three field goals, five PATs) in ASU's 44-10 win over Oregon on November 10th, Zendejas stood at the brink with 355 points heading into a battle with Colorado State. He wouldn't have to wait long to surpass Dorsett, with a second quarter extra point in the Sun Devils' 45-14 win over the Rams providing the record breaking point.
Not just one for stats, Zendejas earned a shelf full of award and honors in his career. He was an honorable mention All-American in 1981 and 1982, before securing the first-team consensus All-American spot in 1983. It should then be not surprising that he was a first-team All Pac-10 player in 1983, and a second-team selection in the other three seasons.
The NCAA record has since been surpassed, but any time a record set by Tony Dorsett is broken, it's a tremendous feat, and having a Sun Devil atop the NCAA rankings was indeed something special.
See all the previous entries on House of Sparky's 100 day football countdown here.
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