Mike Loftus Named To Ray Guy Award Preseason Watch List

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

Loftus Named To Ray Guy Award Preseason Watch List
Junior-To-Be Among 25 Candidates For Award

July 10, 2013
AUGUSTA, Ga. (SMU) - SMU junior Mike Loftus is one of 25 players on the Ray Guy Award Preseason Watch List, the Augusta Sports Council announced today.

The Ray Guy Award is given annually to the nation's top collegiate punter. The award is named after the former Southern Mississippi and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders punter who made seven Pro Bowls and won three Super Bowls.

Loftus earned honorable mention All-Conference USA honors a season ago, averaging 41.9 yards per punt with a season-long boot of 62 yards at UTEP. He also had nine punts of 50 or more yards and had 12 fall within the opponent's 20-yard line.

The number of eligible candidates for this season will grow when the award opens for nominations in September. The complete list of candidates will be released on Oct. 25. In early November, the Ray Guy Award committee will meet to select the ten semi-finalists, who will be announced on Nov. 8. A national body of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sports information directors, coaches, media representatives, and previous Ray Guy Award winners will then vote for the top three finalists, to be announced on Nov. 25. After the finalists are named, the voting body will cast ballots again to select the nation's top punter. The winner will be announced live during The Home Depot College Football Awards airing on ESPN on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013.

2013 Ray Guy Award Preseason Watch List
Steven Clark (Sr.), Auburn
Pat O'Donnell (Gr.), Miami (Fl.)
Darragh O'Neill (Jr.), Colorado
Will Monday (So.), Duke
Trent Tignor (Sr.), East Carolina
Kyle Christy (Jr.), Florida
Richie Leone (Sr.), Houston
Justin Duvernois (Jr.), Illionois
Kirby Van Der Kamp (Jr.), Iowa State
Anthony Melchiori (So.), Kent State
Landon Foster (So.), Kentucky
Tyler Williams (So.), Marshall
Colter Johnson (Sr.), Massachusetts
Tom Hornsey (Sr.), Memphis
Mike Sadler (Jr.), Michigan State
Ben Skaer (Sr.), New Mexico
Cayle Chapman-Brown (Sr.), New Mexico State
Thomas Hibbard (Jr.), North Carolina
Keith Kostol (Jr.), Oregon State
Cody Webster (Sr.), Purdue
Harrison Waid (Sr.), San Jose State
Mike Loftus (Jr.), SMU
Ethan Perry (So.), TCU
Hunter Mullins (Jr.), UAB
Michael Bowlin (Sr.), Washington State

[austinponie]

Loftus...

Great name for a punter.

Congrats and pin 'em deep this year!

[ponyboy]

Sometimes it seems these names are made up. Tiger Woods being the most obvious example.

Congrats Mike!

[mrydel]

Sometimes it seems these names are made up. Tiger Woods being the most obvious example.

Congrats Mike!

So I should assume ponyboy is your given name?

[JoeKidd]

Congrats to Loftus, an important part of the Defense.

[Mustangsabu]

He can help us hugely this year.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

It's great for Loftus to make the list, but I don't see him winning the award unfortunately since he won't punt very much.

[Scoops]

It's great for Loftus to make the list, but I don't see him winning the award unfortunately since he won't punt very much.

Haha. Like the way you think!

[SMUguy]

Punters are among the guys who aren't appreciated until you don't have one.
Loftus had a good year last year - glad to have him.

[ponyboy]

Sometimes it seems these names are made up. Tiger Woods being the most obvious example.

Congrats Mike!

So I should assume ponyboy is your given name?

It's Rupert.

[Alaric]

Funny that he's turned into a pretty good punter...he was brought here as both a PK/P but his claim to fame was primarily as a PK, right? Seems that he was a highly touted PK but really struggled in that department here and wasn't too impressive in the beginning here as a punter either. Great to see him develop. Had a pretty darn good year last year

[AusTxPony]

I do remember that he came in "highly touted" as a Ganz recruit from Ca. Seems to me he got on the bad list with JJ as a frosh, but has come along lately. Hope he has a great year and lives up to his high school rankings.