Utes & Aggies Represented On Ray Guy Award Watch List
Aug 2, 2024, 2:47 PM
Utah Utes punter Jack Bouwmeester (34) punts in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023 during the season opener. Utah won 24-11. (Photo courtesy of Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
(Photo courtesy of Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY – Ray Guy Award Watch List names Utah football’s Jack Bouwmeester and Utah State football’s Stephen Kotsanlee as two of 34 players on the preseason list. The Ray Guy Award was created by the Augusta Sports Council in 2000 and is awarded annually to the nation’s top punter.
Kotsanlee and Bouwmeester were named to the Ray Guy Award Watch List on Friday, August 2.
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𝐊𝐨𝐭𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐆𝐔𝐘!
Congrats to @SKotsy17 on being named to the @RayGuyAward Watch List!
➡️ https://t.co/A4OOTuE9gx pic.twitter.com/WpjxfBQcJH
— USU Football (@USUFootball) August 2, 2024
This is Kotsanlee’s second consecutive season being named to the list. Athlon Sports also named him to the preseason all-Mountain West third team.
In 2023, the Melbourne, Australia native averaged 43.4 yards per punt, the sixth-best single-season average in USU history, and recorded a career-long punt of 69 yards against Idaho State, tied for the 16th-longest punt in school history. He has a career average of 42.6 yards per punt, the fourth-best in school history, on 182 attempts.
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Bouwmeester makes the list after being a semifinalist for the award in 2023. Out of Bendigo, Australia, Bouwmeester earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors in 2023 after playing in all 13 games with 55 punts for 2,503 yards (45.5 avg.). He had 20 punts land inside the 20-yard line and 19 punts for 50-plus yards.
Bouwmeester was a three-time Ray’s 8 recipient and was named Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week twice. He transferred to Utah from Michigan State ahead of the 2022 season.
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Brian Preece is a sports.ksl.com insider covering the Utah State Aggies, Locals in MLB, and Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees, Beehive baseball, and Aggie athletics coverage here.
