Tag: Ray Guy Award

Eddie Czaplicki wins Ray Guy Award as nation’s best punter

Eddie Czaplicki is USC’s first-ever Ray Guy Award winner. Congratulations, Eddie!

USC football punter Eddie Czaplicki is collecting honors and hardware after a spectacular 2024 regular season. One could make the argument that Woody Marks was USC’s best player, but since Ashton Jeanty of Boise State exists, Marks isn’t getting trophies for his stellar work as a running back at USC. It’s Czaplicki who is cleaning up. The USC punter won the Ray Guy Award on Thursday night, given to the best punter in college football. He is USC’s first-ever Ray Guy winner. The facts don’t lie, as we noted earlier this week:

USC senior punter Eddie Czaplicki was officially named a First Team All-American by The Athletic. He becomes the 177th All-American in school history. Czaplicki is also just the second USC punter to earn such honors, with the lone other being Tom Malone in 2003.

This season, Czaplicki averaged 48.5 yards per punt, good for third most in the country. His 45.7 net yards average led the FBS.

Czaplicki is the seventh Trojan to earn First Team All-American honors under head coach Lincoln Riley.

If there’s a reason Czaplicki beat out Florida State punter Alex Mastromanno for the award, it’s that Czaplicki pinned more of his punts inside the 20. Mastromanno was elite in yards per punt, but Czaplicki had more of an impact on field position. Florida State’s awful offense might have played a role in making Czaplicki’s results stand out more than Mastromanno’s.

Regardless, USC — and Eddie Czaplicki — will take it.

Texas A&M’s Tyler White has been named a Ray Guy Award Semifinalist

True freshman punter Tyler White has been named a Ray Guy Award Semifinalist

On Friday morning, the Augusta Sports Council announced the 2024 Ray Guy Award Semifinalists. Texas A&M’s true freshman punter Tyler White made the cut as one of the remaining ten.

White has been the special team’s MVP for the season and gives the defense the advantage with his field-flipping kicks. The three-time SEC Special Teams Player of the Week averages 45.3 yards per punt and leads the SEC in punts inside the 20-yard line with 16. He is an under-the-radar asset that can help a coaching staff when they have those games that turn into a battle of field position.

Below is the social media announcement that Tyler White has been named a Ray Guy Award Semifinalist.

The Augusta Sports Council created the Ray Guy Award in 2000 to honor Thomson, Georgia native and College and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, Ray Guy. Punters are evaluated on their overall statistics and contribution to the team. Particular emphasis is placed on net average, percentage of total punts inside the 20-yard line, and percentage of punts not returned. The winner must display team leadership, self-discipline, and have a positive impact on the team’s success.

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Duke punter Kade Reynoldson named to Ray’s 8 after Connecticut win

The Ray Guy Award included Duke’s Kade Reynoldson among “Ray’s 8” in Week 3, an honor reserved for the nation’s best punters each week.

The Ray Guy Award recognized Duke punter Kade Reynoldson as one of “Ray’s 8” after the Blue Devils’ Week 3 win over Connecticut.

The honor goes to the best punters across the country each week, and Reynoldson certainly fit that description against the Huskies. The freshman from Australia finished with 320 total yards on seven punts, averaging 45.7 yards per boot and pinning the UConn offense inside the 20-yard line three times.

It’s hard to overstate how essential Reynoldson was to Duke’s fourth-quarter comeback. The Blue Devils punted on four straight possessions during the middle of Saturday’s game, including one punt after the Huskies had retaken the lead. After the offense stalled, Reynoldson pinned UConn at its own 6-yard line.

After Connecticut couldn’t gain any traction on the ensuing possession, the Blue Devils got the ball in Huskies territory and scored its first points of the second half. Without that flipped field position, it’s hard to know if the offense would have still found a way to win.

Gators punter makes Ray Guy Award ‘Ray’s 8’ list for Week 1 efforts

Jeremy Crawshaw turned some heads on Saturday despite his team’s dismal performance overall.

The Ray Guy Award’s weekly “Ray’s 8” included Florida football punter Jeremy Crawshaw among its recipients for his superlative performance in the Gators’s season-opening home loss to the Miami Hurricanes.

The Australian native punted five times, dropping three kicks inside the 20-yard line and recording two for 50-plus yards, with his longest going for 61 yards to Miami’s 7-yard line. The five-year senior’s best field position punt came in the first quarter when lobbed a 38-yarder into the hands of Chimere Dike at the Miami 3-yard line.

Crashaw set career and single-season program records in career average yards per punt (46.7) and single-season yards per punt (48.9) last fall with the Orange and Blue, earning him AP All-SEC Second-Team honors. Coming into the 2024 campaign, the fifth-year senior received preseason mentions from the likes of The Sporting News, CFN, Athlon Sports and Phil Steele.

About the ‘Ray’s 8’ list

The “Ray’s 8” list recognizes four collegiate punters each week. From the group of four, fans determine which punter should be named Punter of the Week by voting on the Ray Guy Award website.

Next up for the Gators

The Gators will get a chance to even up their 2024 regular season record against the Samford Bulldogs next Saturday inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the SEC Network+.

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Senior punter Brian Buschini named to Ray Guy Award watch list for third straight year

Senior punter Brian Buschini was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list.

A Husker enters the 2024 football season with his name on an award watchlist for the third straight year. Senior punter Brian Buschini was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list.

Buschini is one of 34 punters nationally named to the preseason watch list Friday. The Ray Guy Award is presented to the nation’s top punter in the FBS. The winner will be announced during ESPN’s Home Depot College Football Awards Show in December.

In his collegiate career, the Helena, Montana native has averaged 43.7 yards per punt. Buschini has been the starter for the Huskers in the past two seasons. Last year, he averaged 40.7 yards on 57 punts, landing 20 of his 57 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

In his first season at Nebraska, he averaged 44.0 yards per punt, ranking eighth in Husker history and 25th in the nation. He delivered 16 punts of 50 yards or longer, including a 74-yard punt against Wisconsin that ranked seventh-longest in school history.

Before arriving at Nebraska, Buschini spent three seasons at Montana from 2019 to 2021. In his final season with the Grizzlies, Buschini won FCS Punter of the Year and was named first-team All-American. He averaged 46.0 yards per punt and helped Montana lead the FCS in net punting average.

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Oklahoma punter Luke Elzinga named to Ray Guy Award Watch List

Oklahoma punter Luke Elzinga was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list.

The Oklahoma Sooners found their punter midway through the 2023 season as [autotag]Luke Elzinga[/autotag] took over for [autotag]Josh Plaster[/autotag] and never relinquished the job. Heading into 2024, he’s the lead punter for the Sooners and has a chance to earn some accolades.

On Friday, Elzinga was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list. The Ray Guy Award is given to the most outstanding punter in college football.

In 2023, Elzinga averaged 45.1 yards per punt, and 51.5% of his punts were downed inside the 20. Alabama’s James Burnip, who was Pro Football Focus’ highest graded punter, only had 42.3% of his punts downed inside the 20. Elzinga’s net of 40.8 yards per punt ranked No. 33 in the nation among punters with at least 19 attempts according to Pro Football Focus.

 

No Sooner has ever won the award named after the former All-American and All-Pro punter. If Elzinga can pick up where he left off in 2023, he’ll have a chance to bring home the schools first Ray Guy Award.

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Michigan State football punter named to Ray Guy Award watch list

Michigan State football punter named to Ray Guy Award watchlist

Michigan State football is starting to develop a bit of a reputation for having great punters. It helps when you go from Bryce Baringer to Ryan Eckley. Eckley seamlessly picked up where Baringer left off, impressing in his first season as the starter in 2023.

For his efforts, Eckley has been named to the 2024 Ray Guy Award Preseason Watch List. The Ray Guy Award is given to the top punter in college football.

https://twitter.com/RayGuyAward/status/1819402791120765417

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Michigan State football punter Ryan Eckley named to Ray Guy Award final watchlist

Ryan Eckley named to Ray Guy Award final watchlist

It’s been a wild season for Michigan State football, but one of the bright spots has been with the kicking and punting units. In particular, Ryan Eckley, who has had to fill the big cleats of Bryce Baringer, has been one of the best punters in the Big Ten conference this year.

For his efforts, Eckley has been named to the Ray Guy Award’s final watchlist of the 2023 season.

Eckly is averaging 45.2 yards per punt, with 15 punts being inside the 20-yard line.

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Penn State punter Riley Thompson named on Ray Guy Award watch list

Penn State punter Riley Thompson has landed on the Ray Guy Award watch list for 2023.

One of Penn State’s newest additions to the special teams unit is already on the national radar as one of the top punters in the nation. [autotag]Riley Thompson[/autotag], who transferred to Penn State from Florida Atlantic during the offseason, was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list.

The Ray Guy Award is presented annually to the nation’s top punter by the Augusta Sports Council and is named after former All-Pro punter Ray Guy. The award was first presented in 1990 to Wisconsin’s Kevin Stemke.

Thompson, a native of Australia, was one of the top punters in Conference USA in 2022 with 61 punts for 2,770 yards and 15 punts of at least 50 yards with 26 punts inside the 20-yard line and just three touchbacks. Thompson averaged 45.4 yards per punt in 2022 for the Owls and was the nation’s 12th-best punter for average punt yardage.

No Penn State punter has ever won the Ray Guy Award, so Thompson will be looking to be the first winner in school history. Last year’s winner of the Ray Guy Award was Adam Korsak of Rutgers.

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Jesse Mirco makes Ray Guy watch list

We’ve got one more buckeye on a preseason watch list, this time for the Ray Guy Award. #GoBucks

Ohio State punter Jesse Mirco was one of 49 college football players appearing on the 2023 preseason Ray Guy Award watch list.

The Ray Guy Award is handed out annually to the best punter in the game and has been awarded since the year 2000. The Augusta Sports Council is the organization that judges the yearly performances for the honor.

Mirco, originally from Freemantle, Australia, was one of ten semifinalists last season. He averaged 45.4 yards per punt in 2022 and had a total of 37 punts downed inside the 20-yard line. He continued the long line of very good punters coming out of ProKick Australia.

For his career, Mirco has averaged 44.2 yards per punt. He’s hoping to improve on last year’s and his career average as things play out in 2023.

B.J. Sander is the only OSU punter to have won the award, taking home the honor in 2003. Stay with us as more and more college football preseason watch lists are announced over the coming days and weeks.

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