The most prolific kicker and scorer in Youngstown State football
history and one of the top place kickers in the National Football
League, Jeff Wilkins, was honored at the annual Penguin Club
Scholarship Ring/Dinner as one of the Penguin's of the Year in 2001
for his past and current success.
Wilkins, a native of Austintown, Ohio, has spent eight
successful years with three teams in the NFL, the past five years
as the place kicker for the St. Louis Rams. Prior to joining the
Rams he was a kicker for San Francisco and Philadelphia. He has
played a tremendous part in the Rams' recent success of a Super
Bowl Championship in 2000 and a playoff appearance in 2001.
Wherever Wilkins has been, he has been part of a success story
and the rest of the 29-year-old's career looks just as bright as it
how it began at Austintown High School and here at Youngstown
State.
While helping the Rams make the postseason for the third
straight year in 2002, his biggest feat was a 1999 season that
landed St. Louis its first Super Bowl championship in franchise
history. In the playoffs, he kicked seven PAT's in the Divisional
Playoff win against Minnesota. In the NFC Championship game against
Tampa Bay, he had a 24-yard field goal. In the 23-16 win over
Tennessee in the Super Bowl, he kicked three first-half field
goals.
In the 1999 regular-season he finished first in the NFC in
scoring with 124 points as St. Louis rolled to a 14-2 record. His
124 points ranked second on the team's all-time single-season point
list. He made 64 consecutive point-after-touchdown attempts to set
an NFL record. Wilkins made 20-of-28 field-goal attempts.
Although the Rams came up short of defending their Super Bowl
title this year, Wilkins battled back from a leg injury to have as
perfect of a season a kicker could have.
This past season, he finished second in the NFL in scoring with
127 points. He made all 58 PAT kicks and was 23-of-29 on field
goals. The Rams posted a 14-2 regular-season record and advanced to
the NFC Championship game for the second time in three years.
Wilkins made everything during the 2000-01 campaign. He was
17-of-17 on his field-goal attempts and made all 38 PATs. He
finished the year playing in 11 games and scored 89 points. The
Rams lost in a wildcard playoff game to the New Orleans Saints.
In his first two seasons Wilkins showed that the Rams made a
good move when they signed him as a free agent in 1997. In 1998, he
made 20-of-26 field-goal tries and missed one extra point in 26
attempts. That is the only extra point he has missed in his career.
His first season with St. Louis was in 1997 and he made 25 field
goals and 32 PAT kicks, totaling 107 points.
The San Francisco 49ers learned first hand that the sky is the
limit for Wilkins in 1996. In his first season as an NFL team's
primary kicker, he scored 130 points, making 70-of-74 kicks (40-40
PATs and 30-34 FGs). By making 30 field goals, he set a 49ers
single-season record. His field-goal percentage was an impressive
team-record .882 considering the ever-changing wind and weather
conditions in San Francisco. He kicked six field goals in a game on
Sept. 29, 1996 against Atlanta to tie a club mark.
In 1995, Wilkins signed with the 49ers as a free agent and
played in seven games. He showed his talents making 12-of-13 field
goals and made 29-of-29 extra-point kicks.
Wilkins' NFL career began as a kickoff specialist for the
Philadelphia Eagles in 1994. Following his success at Youngstown
State, he signed as a free agent with the Eagles and handled the
kickoff duties in six games. He did not attempt a place kick that
season.
In his 98-game regular-season NFL career, he has made an amazing
147-of-184 attempts (79.9 percent) and has missed just three extra
points in 287 attempts. He has 725 career points playing for the
Eagles, 49ers and Rams. He has not missed a point-after-conversion
kick since the 1998 season and has just one miss the last six
years.
The fans of Youngstown State knew Wilkins' best days were ahead
of him when he wore jersey No. 14 from 1990 through 1993.
As part of two national championship teams (1991 and 1993), he
plastered his name all over the school's record books in his four
seasons.
He scored 373 points to set the school mark for points by
kicking and total points by a Penguin. He had 98 field-goal
attempts, made 66 of them, including a school-best tying kick of 54
yards against Northern Iowa on Dec. 12, 1992, and made 173 extra
points. At the school his is third with a 67.3 field-goal success
percentage.
Wilkins scored 104 points in 1992 and that set a school
single-season mark for kickers and ranks tied for fifth on the
school single-year scoring totals. He made 53 extra points in 1992
and 1993 and both of those years rank second in school history for
extra points made in a season. In 1990 and 1992, he made 17 field
goals to rank second on the single-season charts.
On the single-season lists, he set school records for points in
a game by a kicker (15), field goals in a game (five) against
Stephen F. Austin (Sept. 11, 1993) and Southwest Texas State (Sept.
19, 1992) and consecutive extra points made with 46 between the
1992 and 1993 seasons.
Before joining the Penguins in 1990, Wilkins was an all-state
kicker for Austintown Fitch High School.
Jeff and his wife Tina, reside in St. Louis, Mo., with their
daughter Britney.
