Tulane junior place-kicker Cairo Santos spent the week in West Palm Beach, Fla., charming the media on hand to document the 2012 Home Depot College Football Awards ceremonies.
Tulane's Cairo Santos hoists the Lou Groza Award trophy, which anually goes to the nation's best college place-kicker
But Santos, who delivered on 21-of-21 field goals this season, won over the Lou Groza voters, too. He won the award over two-time fellow finalists Dustin Hopkins of Florida State and Caleb Sturgis of Florida on Thursday in a ceremony televised by ESPN.
Santos became the second player in Green Wave history to earn the honor. Seth Marler won the award in 2001. (Watch all 21 of his field goals here.)
"I'm thankful and very honored to be with these two guys and to be on the same stage with all of these great players and coaches," Santos said at the ceremony.
Host Chris Fowler asked about the pressure of having to kick a 57-yarder that might end his streak of made field goals.
"I'm just very thankful that I have a coach [Curtis Johnson] who trusts me," Santos said. "All I could think about was the kick going through."
Santos, hails from Sao Paulo, Brazil, but prepped as an exchange
student at St. Joseph's Academy in St. Augustine, Florida, the same area as Sturgis. The Florida kicker helped Santos, a former soccer player, get his start by connecting him with a kicking coach.
The pupil earned his keep this season. Santos' perfection on field goals made him just the second kicker in FBS history to make every one of at least 20 field goals attempted. North Carolina State's Marc Primanti, the 1996 Groza Award winner, finished 20-of-20 in 1996.
