The Pittsburgh Steelers signed former Southern Mississippi kicker Danny Hrapmann on Wednesday according to former NFL kicker Michael Husted on Twitter. Hrapmann was 49 of 65 on field goal attempts during his college career and was 116 of 117 on extra point attempts in those two seasons.
Hrapmann was selected All-Conference USA Second Team for the 2011 college football season as selected by the league\’s 12 head football coaches.
The Steelers had an opening on their 90 man roster for a kicker after undrafted free agent kicker Grant Ressel was released after the first rookie camp concluded. The Steelers reportedly brought in veteran Dave Rayner for a visit last week, but chose not sign him.
Hrapmann will compete with Shaun Suisham next week during the Steelers first OTA session.
Last name is pronounced “Rap-man.” Started his collegiate career at Southeastern Louisiana in 2007 and handled 62 kickoffs for 59.3-yard average and five touchbacks. Also converted point-after tries. Decided to transfer to Southern Mississippi, where he walked on and redshirted in ’08. Handled kickoffs (80-60.4-6) for the entire ’09 season and took over placekicking duties for the last five games of the season, connecting on 4-of-7 field-goal attempts with a long of 38 and 14-of-18 PATs. In ’10, he was named a Walter Camp first-team All-America selection and a finalist for the Lou Groza Award after converting all 55 PATs and 26-of-31 FG attempts, with a long of 54, and two of his four misses were blocked. Also handled kickoffs (93-63.3-8) and punted five times for an average of 43.0 yards with a long of 55 and one punt inside the 20-yard line. Team captain. LINK
