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UH kicker Kansei Matsuzawa reacted after making a game-winning field goal to beat the Stanford Cardinal at Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in the Warriors’ opener on Aug. 23.
Kicker Kansei Matsuzawa today became the University of Hawaii football program’s first consensus All-American.
Matsuzawa, 26, earned the distinction after being selected today to the American Football Coaches Association’s All-America first team.
The NCAA recognizes five All-America teams. A “consensus” All-American is selected to three of those organizations’ first teams. Matsuzawa previously was named to the All-America first teams by the Walter Camp Foundation and the Associated Press. The Sporting News and the Football Writers Association of America will announce their All-America teams this week.
“This is a result of my teammates and coaches,” Matsuzawa said, noting without them “I couldn’t have done this. I appreciate my family, and the state of Hawaii and Japan.”
Matsuzawa is a self-taught kicker from Chiba, Japan. The school-promoted “Tokyo Toe” converted his first 25 field-goal attempts this season to tie an FBS record for best start. The streak ended when he was wide right on a 30-yard attempt in the fourth quarter of the regular-season finale against Wyoming.
Last week, UH special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield declared Matsuzawa as “the best kicker in the country. And I’ll stand on the tallest mountain and scream it from the tallest mountain until the cows come home.”
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The Rainbow Warriors will play Cal in the Dec. 24 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl at the Ching Complex.
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