Kevin Kelly (American football)

Kevin Patrick Kelly (born August 1, 1987) is a former four-year starting placekicker for coach Joe Paterno's Penn State Nittany Lions football team. He is from Bristol, Pennsylvania. A kinesiology major, he is the all-time leading scorer for the Nittany Lions and the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten football history.

College career
Kevin Kelly was lightly recruited coming out of Neshaminy High School. He accepted a scholarship offer from Penn State over the Syracuse Orange and Delaware Blue Hens. Kelly claimed the starting placekicker position during pre-season training. He became the first true freshman since Craig Fayak to be the starting kicker in the season opening game against the South Florida Bulls. Kelly would go on to break Fayak's team freshmen scoring record. He also kicked the game winning 29 yard field goal in the 2006 Orange Bowl against the Florida State Seminoles. Kelly finished the season with 16 field goals in 23 attempts.

Kevin Kelly's second season at Penn State ended with him earning a place on the Academic All-Big Ten team. He was 22 of 34 in field goals and was perfect on 30 extra point attempts. He kicked two career-long field goals of 49 yards, one against the Illinois Fighting Illini that led the Nittany Lions to an important come from behind victory. He kicked two field goals against the Tennessee Volunteers in the 2007 Outback Bowl.

Kelly became Penn State's all-time leading scorer on November 10, 2007 against the Temple Owls in Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia near his hometown of Langhorne. He reached this mark before the end of his junior season and continued to build on it against Michigan State and in the 2007 Alamo Bowl against the Texas A&M Aggies. In fact, Kelly scored his first career touchdown against Michigan State on a fake field goal, taking a direct snap from the center and running into the end zone.

Kelly began the 2008 season on the Lou Groza Award watchlist. His 4-field goal, 5-extra point performance in Penn State's 46-17 win versus Michigan earned him Big Ten Specialist of the Week honors. Kelly finished that game with 376 career kicking points, making him the Big Ten's all-time kick scoring leader. He broke the previous mark of 367 points held by Minnesota's Dan Nystrom and Iowa's Nate Kaeding.

At season's end, he was named a consensus first team All-Big Ten selection, and recipient of a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award for the 2008-09 academic year.

Professional Career
After teaching physical education for 2 years, Kelly took a sales position at the Philadelphia based meeting and event center, The Hub.