In the second quarter Tennessee’s instant classic with Alabama on Oct. 15, Vols quarterback Hendon HookerHe made a pass to the middle on third and 10. He hit tight end Princeton FantPickup at 7 yards. Because Tennessee was still at its 32 yard line and 3 yards from a first down, there was only one choice for the coaching staff.
That set the stage for an unfamiliar scene for this year’s Vols and their explosive offense.
“It’s gonna be a punt for Tennessee. How about that?” CBS analyst Gary Danielson said on the broadcast.
“First time (today),” play-by-play announcer Brad Nessler followed.
Tennessee punter outtrotted Paxton Brooks.
Brooks, a fifth-year senior, is fortunate he is also Tennessee’s holder and kickoff specialist. The Vols are second in the country with 50.1 points per games and only behind the other teams. Ohio StateHe has scored 46 touchdowns. It’s not like he’s not getting playing time.
But as a punter — one who was named to the preseason watch list for the 2022 Ray Guy Award, no less — things have been rather, um, quiet on that front. Brooks has been punting just 2.0 times per week in 2022, compared to 2.3 times per year in 2019, 4.9 in 2020 and 3.0 in 2021. Brooks and other punters like him are the only national team to punt less often per game than the Vols.
What’s it like to be the punter of a team that almost never punts? And how is a punter supposed to feel when their team’s offensive success comes directly at the expense of their own playing time?
“Me and (offensive coordinator Alex) Golesh, he has a great relationship with me, so we always joke around, and he’s like, ‘We’re not gonna need you this week,’” Brooks said. “A couple of weeks ago, someone asked coach (Josh) Heupel about punting or something, and he said that’s become kind of a curse word around our building.”
Indeed, the Vols don’t punt unless they have to. Brooks said that Hooker and Brooks are his photographers. Matthew Salansky, in which all three players hold up the number “zero” with their hands each time Tennessee goes a full game without a punt.
WashingtonFirst-year coach Kalen deBoer is bringing an offensive revival to the team. The Huskies are scoring a lot more touchdowns … and punting a lot less.
“Well, on one hand, it’s kind of frustrating because I would like to go out there and do my job,” said Jack McCallister, Washington’s redshirt freshman punter whose team’s 1.9 punts per game rank 130th out of 131 FBS teams. “But it also kind of feels good to know that our offense is doing that well and so I don’t really need to go out there.
“I would have never imagined that last year would have gone the way it did and then coach DeBoer would’ve come in and we would have this crazy offense. But it happened, and even though I’m not getting to punt a lot, it’s still a super-fun experience.”
Washington’s Jack McCallister has punted only 15 times in eight games. (Jesse Beals/Getty Images).
McCallister said he first started to notice he might not be needed much on Saturdays when Washington’s offense — which ranks No. 7 nationally — played Michigan StateIn Week 3. The Huskies punted three more times this season, which was tied for the season’s highest, but they put on an offensive performance that rivaled any. Resonated nationallyThis led to their first win in over two decades against a Power 5 nonconference ranked opponent.
Since then, McCallister has punted nine more times as Washington’s offense averages north of 500 yards per game. McCallister, a native of Edmonds in Wash., makes sure to keep warm and take snaps while he’s on offensive plays.
But he’ll joke with his teammates every once in a while when his warmups are rendered moot.
“I’m ready in case I do need to go in and punt,” McCallister said. “But a lot of times, I don’t.”
That’s the reality for UCLApunter Nicholas Barr-Mira — also the team’s place kicker — as well.
The Bruins hold the distinction of being ranked last or first in punts per game nationally. Nationally, the Bruins rank last (or first) in punts per match (1.7). This is due to an explosive offense that’s quarterbacked by Dorian Thompson – RobertsonIt is ranked second in the country for third-down conversion rates.
Barr-Mira said his offensive teammates will tell him that they love him but all they want to see on Saturdays is extra points.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, man, I’m with you,’” he said. “I’ll be ready to go out there and hit the game winner if needed.”
It’s a far cry from his senior year of high school, when his team went 1-9.
“I punted the ball a lot,” he said, laughing. “Quite a change from now to then.”
Barr-Mira is also fine to be largely in the background, as each punter knows it. Even if their offense is rolling.
Texas A&M commit Tyler White, the top punter recruit in the Class of 2023 in the 247Sports Composite, said he’ll sometimes joke with fellow recruits that he’s a five-star quarterback. He and two kickers once told the people running an A&M photo shoot on an unofficial visit that they were quarterbacks.
During Brooks’ preseason photos for Tennessee, he got tired of the traditional punter poses, so he moonlighted as an offensive lineman and a quarterback.
“Well,” Books said, “believe it or not, being a punter recruit is not as glamorous as everybody thinks.”
This week only Penn Statepunter Barney AmorHe set up a camera on campus and asked fellow students about the punter and their opinions. “Who the hell is the punter?” said one student. Another said he thinks the Nittany Lions specialist “should kick it farther.” And one more said the last time she was at a game, “someone said he was bad.”
I’ve got some work to do… pic.twitter.com/0m6jDdnpos
— barney (@barneyamor) October 25, 2022
Amor said a couple of students knew everything about him, including his first and last name and high school, but didn’t know he was standing right in front of them. The video ended with Amor informing each of his interviewees that he was indeed Penn State’s punter — something they all got a laugh out of together.
“The girl (who said I was bad) followed me around for like five minutes afterward, telling me she was so sorry,” Amor said. “I was like, ‘That’s cool; don’t worry about it.’ But it’s all fun and games.”
Since then, many punters from all over the country have approached Brooks and McCallister about making similar videos. Brooks, Barr-Mira, McCallister and Amor might be relatively anonymous publicly, but they’ll always have their punter community. Until then, they’re hopeful their offenses keep up their current production.
“It’s the same thing everywhere. No one’s going out and normally buying the punter’s jersey,” Amor said. “You know that going in. That’s just part of the territory. But it’s fun.”
(Photo by Paxton Brooks: Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
