Iowa punter Tory Taylor has been named to the Ray Guy Award watch list. The 6-foot-4, 231 pound punter from Melbourne, Australia, averaged 46.1 yards per punt on 80 punts.
The Ray Guy Award is handed out annually to the nation’s top punter. Taylor has twice been a semifinalist for the award in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. In addition to his preseason watch list nod here, Taylor earned preseason second-team All-Big Ten honors from Athlon Sports and preseason fourth-team All-Big Ten recognition from Phil Steele.
Taylor appeared on the weekly Ray’s 8 list three times throughout the 2021 season and was named Big Ten Co-Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance against Iowa State. He was also named honorable mention All-Big Ten by the league coaches and media a season ago.
Of course, Taylor set the Iowa single-season record for punting yards with 3,688 yards in 2021. During the 2020 season, Taylor ranked third in the Big Ten and 20th nationally with a punting average of 44.1 yards. Eighteen of his 40 punts were downed inside the 20-yard line and nine were downed inside the 10-yard line that season.
Iowa’s Ryan Donahue was also a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award in 2009 and a finalist in the 2010 season.
In addition to Taylor’s brilliance in the punting department, he also made use of his star status with the Hawkeyes to help raise money for Count The Kicks, an organization that’s working to save babies’ lives and decrease stillbirths.
All of the proceeds from Taylor’s “Punting Is Winning” t-shirts go directly to support the Count The Kicks organization.
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