Which teams in the College Football Playoffs can rely on their kickers when it matters most?

Google searches for “Nolan Hauser,” flat for most of 2024, spiked like a Clemson fan’s heart rate when the freshman kicker lined up for a 56-yard field goal to send the Tigers to the College Football Playoff.

Search interest in Hauser’s name went from zero to 100 on the weekend of the ACC Championship Game. In the time it took the ball to sail through the uprights, casual fans learned that Hauser, a freshman from Cornelius, N.C., set a national record with 66 field goals at William Amos Hough High School. They learned that his mother, Sheri, was an All-America soccer player at Clemson and that his father, Scott, pitched on Clemson’s College World Series team in 1996. They also learned that his last name is pronounced HOO-zer, as in, “They’re not booing. They’re saying HOO-zer.”

The beauty of college football’s postseason is that a 190-pound freshman can become an instant hero — or, for those less fortunate than Hauser, a subject of infamy. It’s a good bet that at least one of the 12 teams in the CFP will see its season come down to the leg of a kicker on this list.

So who will be sweating, and who will be fist-pumping? Here’s a ranking of all 12 CFP kickers.