Donahue in Disney World

[PJHawk]

Ray Guy Award winner will be announced on the Disney Boardwalk tonight on ESPN

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Not everyone at the Home Depot College Football Awards show is a previous winner or finalist, it just seems that way to Hawkeye senior Ryan Donahue.


Donahue, a 6-3, 190-pound senior from Evergreen Park, IL, is one of three finalists for the Ray Guy Award, given to the nation's top collegiate punter. The other finalists? Georgia's Drew Butler, who won the award in 2009, and Florida's Chas Henry, a 2009 finalist.

Hawkeye Sports - University of Iowa Official Athletic Site

 

[HawkfaninWA]

Congrats to him. Hope he gets it.

 

[tm3308]

It's about time people looked past the average yards per punt. That number has never been overly impressive in Ryan's career, but that has much more to do with the fact that we punt from inside 50 yards way more than a lot of teams.

 

[brett108]

It's about time people looked past the average yards per punt. That number has never been overly impressive in Ryan's career, but that has much more to do with the fact that we punt from inside 50 yards way more than a lot of teams.

They should look past attempts as well then. Oklahoma State had the best punter I have seen this year, but they score to regularly to need him.

 

[brett108]

It's about time people looked past the average yards per punt. That number has never been overly impressive in Ryan's career, but that has much more to do with the fact that we punt from inside 50 yards way more than a lot of teams.

Oops. Double posted

 

[big10fan]

interesting that he didn't get 1st OR 2nd team all big 10, but that he's a finalist in the national award. i hope he wins, but this just doesn't make sense.

 

[hawkfaninTX]

Donahue will be punting next year for someone on sundays for sure. We were joking at the beginning of the year- but he truly is our MVP this year.

 

[ColoradoHAWKEYE]

Agree with the "kicking in the NFL" tag. Unfortunately he did not win the award, which went to Florida's Chas Henry who was a finalist last year. Nice recognition nonetheless.

 

[tm3308]

They should look past attempts as well then. Oklahoma State had the best punter I have seen this year, but they score to regularly to need him.

Sharp has just 5 fewer attempts than Donahue, so that argument doesn't really make sense. Donahue's average is held back because of where we use him. He could boom them all the time if he wasn't punting from the opponent's 40 so often.

Honestly, there aren't many stats that are good to look at for a punter. They're all too easily manipulated by factors like where you're kicking from. Return yardage is affected by how many attempts you have. Inside the 20 is affected by where you kick from.

Punters have to be judged more on the eyeball test than anything. Donahue has passed that test for 4 years.