James Howell Wilhoit II (born June 30, 1983) was the
placekicker
Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter.
Spe ...
for the
University of Tennessee football team between 2003 and
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
.
High school
Wilhoit attended
Hendersonville High School in
Hendersonville, Tennessee where he received
All-American honors from ''
PARADE
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...
'', ''PrepStar'', ''SuperPrep'', ''Student Sports'' and ''Borderwars.com''.
College
Wilhoit
redshirted his freshman year, but went on to become a four-year
starter at Tennessee where he handled
field goal
A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...
and
extra point attempts and
kickoffs.
Wilhoit was known for ability to make field goals in the clutch during his four-year career. When he left Tennessee he was the second leading scorer in school history.
[ His last-minute field goals included a 50-yard field goal with 6 seconds left to give Tennessee to a 30–28 victory over Florida in 2004. Earlier in the quarter he missed an extra point that would have tied the game. Wilhoit ranks in the all-time top five in several kicking categories at UT. He made 59 of 82 field goal attempts (72%) ][ He led the SEC in scoring with 96 points in 2006 and was ranked 7th in SEC history.][
]
Professional football career
Wilhoit was not selected in the 2007 NFL draft, but signed with the Baltimore Ravens as a rookie free agent on May 4, 2007. He was later released from the team in July shortly before the 2007 NFL preseason began. In late 2007, Wilhoit signed with the New All American Football League
The All American Football League (AAFL) was a proposed professional american football minor league. The league, which was to combine a professional pay structure with the requirement that all players be college graduates, had originally been sch ...
that never played a game. He helped promote the league by doing several autograph signings.
Currently
Wilhoit recently studied under Special Teams Coach Gary Zauner for six months to learn his kicking and punting techniques. In addition to Coach Zauner, he has trained under Coach Bill Renner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...
.
Honors
*2006 Lou Groza Place Kicker Award (semifinalist) [
* 2006 All-SEC ][
* 2005 Academic All-SEC ][
* SEC Special Teams Player of the Week (September 18, 2004) ][
* 2004 Academic All-SEC ][
* 2003 Freshman All-America Scripps Howard/FWAA and ''The Sporting News'' (2nd) ][
* 2003 Freshman All-SEC ][
* SEC Freshman Academic Honor Roll ][
]
Notes
External links
Wilhoit web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilhoit, James
1983 births
Living people
People from Hendersonville, Tennessee
American football placekickers
Tennessee Volunteers football players
Kansas City Command players
Baltimore Ravens players
Players of American football from Tennessee