Position Battle: Kickers Cooper Ranvier and Nick Keller “competitive” for field goal duties

There are still a few firsts for Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm since returning to his alma mater. And with exactly two weeks until the start of the highly anticipated 2025 season, his team is still searching for its starting kicker. 

Two in-state products are vying for the starting kicking spot: Lexington’s Cooper Ranvier and Hebron’s Nick Keller. 

Place kicking is underrated and a grueling, complicated position in college football. It’s a position group where confidence and having faith from your coaches and teammates might mean more than being able to kick the ball far. Good offenses can get by with an average kicker, but when you have one who’s consistent with range, those points add up throughout a season. 

For the first two seasons of Brohm’s tenure, Brock Travelstead handled the Cardinals’ place-kicking duties and managed consecutive solid seasons. In his career, Travelstead was 71.4 percent (35-for-49) on field goals with a long of 56 yards and made 98.1 percent of his extra points. These are respectable numbers for a player who also handled punting duties for some of his college career. He was perfect on extra points and 8-for-14 on field goals over 40 yards last season. 

But, special teams coach Karl Maslowski is always looking for the most out of that position. 

“I think it’s a great competition, probably the best competition that we’ve had,” Maslowski said yesterday. “I think Brock Travelstead was solid for the two years that he was the starter. Cooper (Ranvier) and Nick Keller have got to really develop the last two years…both guys have a big leg.” 

“They’re all hitting right now, around 80 percent of their field goals are makes. And then they’re athletic, so hopefully we get some ability to run some fakes with those guys.”

Towards the end of Louisville’s bowl prep last winter, the Cards pitted Ranvier, Keller, and Travelstead against each other in some kicking competitions, with the freshman Ranvier turning heads. But then, as the spring approached, Keller started to impress with his range. 

Cooper Ranvier 

The 6-foot-2 redshirt freshman has yet to attempt a field goal in his college career, making an extra point in last season’s season opener. 

“It’s pretty tight right now,” Ranvier said of the competition. “Me and Nick have been going at it since I got here…we’re honestly just making each other better and just keeping each other accountable, making sure we make all our kicks and be as consistent as possible.”

The Frederick Douglass product has elite range, posting field goals off a tee from over 70 yards. 

He also made one from 50-plus in April’s spring game. Consistency on the intermediate kicks is the next step for Ranvier as he’s certainly headed towards being a starter at some point in his career. 

The staff has just seen little high-pressure kicking from either candidate. 

Nick Keller 

Despite being older than Ranvier as a junior, Keller has the same amount of experience, attempting and making one extra point in last year’s win over Austin Peay. 

Keller’s familiarity with the program and special team personnel may give him an advantage in that department, but his leg might not be as strong. 

“We’ve been competing since he got here last year,” Keller said. “It’s been tight; we’re going to have to wait to see what happens.” 

Keller mentioned he has been working on keeping his kicks high and unblockable. The Cards’ block unit had several blocked field goal attempts, including the one returned for a touchdown against Georgia Tech. Practicing against guys with long arms like A.J. Green and Micah Carter has been a fun challenge for the kicking group. 

What’s next? 

Louisville hosted another scrimmage today, with Brohm saying last weekend that the youth and inexperience of the kickers showed. 

It’s “wait and see” time for who ends up as the starting kicker, but don’t be shocked if we see both Keller and Ranvier get opportunities on the field this fall, especially in Louisville’s first several games. 

The Cards don’t face a power-four opponent until week five at Pittsburgh, so this is a competition that may go several weeks into the season as the staff figures things out. However, the competitive nature of the room has remained friendly.

“As soon as I got here, he welcomed me with open arms. It’s kinda hard to dislike competition when he’s that friendly,” Ranvier said of Keller. 

Keller shared the same sentiment about rooting for his teammates and position room. 

“It’s a competition, so obviously we wanna do our best. We’re both shooting for that spot, but at the end of the day, I just want the team in the best position to win games…so whoever is the better kicker, I just want them to do well in games,” Keller added.