From Pat McAfee to Tory Taylor, punters are becoming more of a popular commodity. Whether it is people genuinely enjoying what punters bring to the game or just meme-ing because it’s funny, punters bring another level to college football. Games are won and lost on field position every year.
The Ray Guy Award is for the nation’s best punter. It is awarded by the Augusta Sports Council which has been handing out the award since 2000. To date, five Big Ten punters have taken home the award. Iowa and Rutgers were home to the last two winners. USC’s Eddie Czaplicki makes it a Big Ten three-peat. He was awarded the Ray Guy Award over Alex Mastromanno from Florida State and Brett Thorson from Georgia.
USC’s Eddie Czaplicki Wins 2024 Ray Guy Award
Czaplicki started off the season on the preseason watchlist and launched nukes all year for the Trojans. Heading into the 2024 season, Czaplicki had three years of experience punting. In his two years at Arizona State plus the 2023 season with USC, he punted 139 times for an average of 44.3 yards and a long of 75. 36 of those punts sailed further than 50 yards and had 48 punts downed within the 20.
This year, the senior punter took a step forward. In total, he launched 40 punts for an average of 48.5 yards, raising his career average to 45.3 yards. That per punt average this year led the Big Ten and netted him the Big Ten Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year award with First-Team All-Big Ten honors. Of those 40 punts, 21 went at least 50 yards and 24 were downed inside the 20.
In terms of Trojan history, Czaplicki had the best yards per punt average in program history and was a solid 1.8 yards ahead of the next. That mark was also third-best in the country behind Mastromanno but ahead of Thorson.
In the short history of the Ray Guy Award, no USC punter had ever won the award. That is, until Czaplicki.
The post USC’s Eddie Czaplicki Wins 2024 Ray Guy Award appeared first on Last Word on College Football.