The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Dickson wins 2017 Ray Guy Award
12.07.2017 | Football
Dickson is the first Longhorn to win the prestigious Ray Guy Award.
ATLANTA, Ga. – Junior punter Michael Dickson has been named the 2017 recipient of the Ray Guy Award. A native of Sydney, Australia, Dickson was recognized during The Home Depot College Football Awards Show in Atlanta, becoming The University of Texas' first-ever winner of the prestigious award given to the nation's best punter.
The award was presented at the College Football Hall of Fame by Georgia's Drew Butler, the 2009 winner of the award. 2016 recipient Mitch Wishnowsky (Utah) and Alabama's J.K. Scott joined Dickson as the other two finalists.
Dickson leads the country averaging 48.4 yards per punt on 73 attempts. His net average of 44.7 yards per punt is the best in the country as well. Last season, Dickson set a school record averaging 47.4 yards per punt.
So far in 2017, Dickson has 34 punts of more than 50 yards, 14 of more than 60 yards and a career-long punt of 76 yards in a game at TCU. That 76-yard punt was the fifth-longest in the country this season, and tied for the fifth-longest in school history. He has had 32 punts downed inside the 20-yard line, 27 downed inside the 15, 14 downed inside the 10 and six downed inside the opponents' five-yard line.
Just 15 of Dickson's 73 punts have been under 40 yards this season. Of those 15 punts, seven have been fair caught or downed inside the 10-yard line with an additional punt fair caught at the opponents' 12-yard line. In comparison, Dickson has had 26 punts with a net average of more than 50 yards and nine with a net average of more than 60 yards. Only 17 punts have been returned this season, with nine of those for three yards or less and five of them having gone for negative yards.
Dickson was named a Walter Camp Football Foundation first team All-American earlier Thursday, and last week was named both Big 12 Conference Special Teams Player of the Year and first team All-Big 12. He was twice named Ray Guy Award National Punter of the Week this season (Iowa State, Oklahoma). He owns seven of the top 12 single-game punting performances (min. 5 attempts) in school history and is currently chasing the FBS single-season record for punting average, which is 48.4 yards (min. 50 attempts) or 47.8 yards (min. 75 attempts).
The Ray Guy Award winner is determined by a national voting body of sports writers, college coaches, sports information directors and past Ray Guy Award winners. Among the statistics used to identify the winner is net punting average, number of times a punt is downed or kicked out of bounds inside the opponents 20-yard line, total yardage punted, average returned yardage and percentage of punts not returned. The winner must display team leadership, self-discipline, and have a positive impact on the team's success.
