Virginia Tech kicker John Love was named the ACC Specialist of the Week after his performance in Saturday's 23-21 win over NC State.
The Spartanburg, S.C., native was 3-for-3 on field goals against the Wolfpack and 2-for-2 on extra points. He opened the scoring with a 39-yarder in the first quarter, tacked on a 32-yarder late in the second quarter and made the game-winner from 49 yards with 6:31 remaining in the contest.
His final boot came after the Hokies had a delay of game penalty ahead of his 43-yard try, which he converted while the flags came in. He wasn't fazed, though. Instead, he calmly stepped up and drilled the second attempt from 49, which was the go-ahead score in the road victory.
"John is an absolute stud," Tech interim head coach Philip Montgomery said of Love. "Whether you're talking about him being a captain and his leadership role on our football team and the voice that he has, what he does on the field and how he continues to step up in big-time moments, we had the delay right there, and John immediately looks at Coach Holt and myself and says, 'That's my fault.' And then he stepped right back up and knocked another one down because that's what John does. Nothing fazes him.
"He's as cool as a cucumber. He's got tons of confidence, and we have tons of confidence in him, and I'm glad he's on our football team."
The redshirt junior is now 9-of-10 this season with the lone miss coming on a 59-yard boot on the final play of the first half against Wofford. He was 16-of-18 in 2024, 22-of-24 the year prior and 1-of-2 as a freshman while he redshirted. In all, he's 48-of-54 in his career, with only three misses inside 49 yards â two in 2023 and one last season, a 33-yarder that was blocked at Old Dominion.
Love has also shown the ability to hit from 50-plus â he's 4-of-7 with all makes coming in NFL stadiums. His career long of 60 was in the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte vs. Minnesota (Bank of America Stadium). He was also money from 52 and 57 at Miami last year (Hard Rock Stadium) and converted from 56 vs. South Carolina in Atlanta in this season's opener (Mercedes-Benz Stadium).
Per College Football Reference, Love's career field goal percentage of 88.9 percent is tied for fourth all-time in FBS history with Northwestern's Jeff Budzien. Those numbers date back to 1956 and are filtered by a minimum of 50 attempts.
Moreover, he is 99-of-99 in his career on point-after attempts.
With his performance in Raleigh, Love jumped Chris Kinzer and Cody Journell on Virginia Tech's all-time scoring list to move into eighth place with 243 points.
Love has been named ACC Specialist of the Week three times now. He earned the honor after the Miami and Virginia games in 2024.