When first-year Duke football coach Manny Diaz sat down with the media after the Blue Devils’ 20-point comeback win over the North Carolina Tar Heels on September 28, he couldn’t hide his excitement about his freshman punter.
“Kade Reynoldson, what a weapon that guy is,” Diaz said.
His comments came after the Australian pinned the Tar Heels at their own 5-yard line for the potential game-winning drive, a perfectly placed 40-yard boot. With Duke leading by a single point, even a field goal would have rendered the comeback effort fruitless. If Reynoldson had let his punt drift into the end zone for a touchback, UNC’s 35 yards of offense on the following drive would have resulted in a 58-yard field goal try. Instead, linebacker Tre Freeman made a game-ending interception.
Reynoldson finished that game with 299 yards on seven punts, an average of 42.71 yards per boot. The Tar Heels began inside their own 20-yard line four times, and the UNC offense didn’t score on any of those possessions.
The freshman followed that performance with 210 yards on five punts against Georgia Tech, earning his way onto Ray’s 8 for the second time this season.
While the Blue Devils ultimately lost this past Saturday, Duke held the Yellow Jackets scoreless in the second and third quarters to briefly reclaim the lead. Reynoldson punted four times in those two frames. Here are the Georgia Tech starting positions on the ensuing drives.
- their own 10-yard line
- their own 8-yard line
- their own 10-yard line
- their own 15-yard line
The Yellow Jackets needed a 14-play, 85-yard touchdown drive to break that scoring drought. Consistently asking opponents to do that against a secondary surrendering fewer than five yards per pass attempt is part of why the Blue Devils didn’t allow a fourth-quarter touchdown until Week 6.
Across his 33 punts this season, he’s accumulated 1,492 yards, the second-most among Power Four punters, and his 45.21-yard average is the 14th-best mark among the power conferences. A weapon, he truly seems to be.