WATCH: USC kicker gets disqualified on first play of the game for targeting
In one of the rarest targeting ejections in college football history, USC sophomore kicker Parker Lewis was ejected earlier tonight for targeting against Stanford on the opening kickoff of the game.
Lewis drilled Stanford running back Nathaniel Peat in the helmet on the first play of the game.
Watch the hit below.
In 2020, Lewis was named All-Pac-12 honorable mention. Overall in 2020, he hit all 23 of his PATs, was 9-of-13 on field goals (with a long of 48 yards) and had touchbacks on 22 of his 38 kickoffs. The Arizona native also had 22 of his 38 kickoffs in his freshman season.
He enrolled at USC in the spring of 2020 and he won the starting kicker job as a true freshman.
Parker Lewis high school career
Coming out of high school, he posted impressive stats as a senior at Saguero High School in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2019, he hit 76-of-77 PATs, and nailed five-of-five of his field goal attempts. He had 82 touchbacks on his 94 kickoffs.
His grandfather, Ben Butler, was set to play at USC until he suffered a career-ending shoulder injury.
Punter was ejected in 2018
A kicker getting ejected from a college football game is such an incredibly rare occurrence. One of the only other similar cases to Lewis’ was when Liberty’s punter, Aidan Alves, was ejected for targeting back in 2018 when he drilled Army’s punt returner, Mike Reynolds.
Alves clearly lowered his head and launched himself at Reynolds, making it a textbook ejection. Here’s the hit, if curious.
Alves tips the scales at 6-foot-1, 220 pounds and looks like a man that would lay a pretty brutal hit.
In 2020, the Pennsylvania native finished the season averaging a career-best 41.8 yards per punt. He averaged a season-best 48.0 yards per punt against North Alabama, including a season-long punt of 56 yards.