Johnson Named To Ray Guy Award Watch List

Johnson Named To Ray Guy Award Watch List

Luke Johnson was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list today.

HATTIESBURG, Miss.? Southern Miss senior punter Luke Johnson was named to the 2005 Ray Guy Award watch list today. Johnson was also named to the Ray Guy Award watch list last season. 

Johnson, named to the American Football Coaches Association?s Good Works Team in 2004, was one of 40 players selected to the Ray Guy Award watch list. The award, given to the top collegiate punter of the year, is presented by the Greater Augusta Sports Council.

The Soso, Miss., native ranks second in school history, with a 42.1 yards per punt average. In the team?s season opening game at Alabama, Johnson had the second best performance of his career, finishing with eight punts for 367 yards, averaging 45.9 yards per punt.

In his career, Johnson has 160 punts for 6,739 yards, including 12 for touchbacks, 28 that were fair caught, 24 punts of over 50 yards and 46 punts that were downed inside the 20-yard line.

The Ray Guy Award watch list will be narrowed to ten semi-finalists to be announced in early-November. The national voting body will then vote for the top three finalists who will be announced at the end of November. On December 8, 2005 the top three finalists will be in Orlando, Florida for the Home Depot College Football awards show. The winner will be announced live on ESPN.

The Ray Guy Award, named after former Southern Miss standout punter Ray Guy, considered to be the greatest punter to ever play, will be presented to the nation?s best collegiate punter as determined by a national selection committee made up of sports writers, college football coaches and sports information directors, former punters and members designated by the Greater Augusta Sports Council.

Among the statistics used to identify the Ray Guy Award winner are total yardage punted, number of times a punt is downed or kicked out of bounds inside the opponents 20-yard line, net average, average returned yardage, and percentage of punts not returned. It is also of importance for the award winner to display team leadership, self-discipline, and to have a positive impact on the team?s success.

Guy, a three-year letterwinner in football from 1970-72 and was the first Southern Miss athlete to have his jersey retired. He was also the first Golden Eagle football player and the first punter inducted into the NFL and College Football Hall of Fame.

Guy, also a standout defensive back and star on the baseball team, finished his career with 200 punts for 8,934 yards, averaging a school record 44.7 yards per punt. In 1972, Guy, the NCAA punting champion in 1972, set the highest punting average for punters with 200-249 attempts in their careers. He was an All-American selection by seven different publications in 1972 and was drafted in the first round of the 1972 NFL draft by the Oakland Raiders, becoming the first punter to be taken in the first round.

The Thomson, Ga., native also holds the school record for most interceptions in a season (8), is second in career interceptions (18) and ranks third in school history in interceptions yardage (268). He also holds the school record for the longest field goal made (61 yards), which at the time was an NCAA record.

Guy played 13 seasons with the Oakland Raiders, and earned pro-bowl selections seven times and led the NFL in punting three times. He was also a member of the 75^th Anniversary All-Time Team, the Super Bowl Silver Anniversary Team and NFL All-Century team. He also played on three Super Bowl teams.

2005 Ray Guy Award Watch List

Troy Blankenship	Iowa State	Senior
Kody Bliss	Auburn University	Junior
Joshua Brazen	Kent State	Senior
Adam Brooks	Wyoming	Senior
Dave Brytus	Purdue University	Sophmore
Brendan Carney	Syracuse	Senior
Cole Chason	Clemson	Junior
Ken Debauche	Wisconsin	Sophmore
Ryan Dougherty	East Carolina	Junior
Gordon Ely-Kelso	University of Georgia	Junior
Brandon Fields	Michigan State	Junior
Nate Fry	Bowling Green	Senior
Tyler Gaus	New Mexico	Senior
Adam Graessle	Pittsburgh	Junior
Chris Hall	Florida State	Senior
Ryan Hoffman	Illinois State	Senior
Ryan Hotchkiss	UTEP	Junior
Luke Johnson	Southern Miss	Senior
Jeremy Kapinos	Penn State	Junior
Sam Koch	Nebraska	Senior
Mike Lingiua	Fresno State	Junior
Chris Macdonald	Arizona State	Sophmore
Tom Malone	Univ Southern Cal	Senior
Ryan Mentzel	SMU	Senior
Matt Miller	Ohio	Senior
Kurt Milne	Hawaii	Junior
Brian Monroe	Miami	Junior
Parker Mullins	UAB	Junior
Thomas Olmsted	Troy University	Senior
Sam Paulescu	Oregon State	Senior
Ryan Plackemeier	Wake Forest	Senior
Adam Podlesh	Maryland	Junior
Tim Reyer	Kansas State	Sophmore
Alex Reyes	Texas Tech	Junior
Daniel Sepulveda	Baylor	Junior
Joel Stelly	Louisiana-Monroe	Senior
Billy Sullivan	University of Akron	Senior
John Torp	Colorado	Senior
Steve Weatherford	Illinois	Senior
Andrew Wellock	Eastern Michigan	Junior
Eric Wilbur

University of Southern Mississippi Athletics

Johnson Named To Ray Guy Award Watch List

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