Senior punter James Smith was named to the preseason 2020 Ray Guy Award Watch List. In 2018 he was one of the three finalists for the award. Smith is a game changer at the punter position and will have a chance to win the award by season’s end.
Per GoBearcats:
University of Cincinnati senior P James Smith (Wangaratta, Australia) was named to the preseason watch list for the 2020 Ray Guy Award, the Augusta Sports Council announced Wednesday.
This is the third time on the watch list for Smith, who was a finalist for the award in 2018 which annually honors the nation’s best punter. The 2020 watch list was compiled based on the 2019 Ray Guy Award Semifinalist List, the top ten NCAA Punters from 2019, the 2019 All-Conference teams, the 2019 All-American Teams and the 2020 pre-season All-Conference Teams.
A three-time All-American Athletic Conference honoree, Smith earned second-team honors in 2019 after back-to-back first-team awards in 2017 and 2018. He ranked among the Top-3 punters in the AAC, averaging 42.4 yards per boot with a long kick of 59 yards in 72 attempts. UC was second in the AAC in net punting, averaging 40.9 net yards per punt during the regular season.
Smith was tabbed as the AAC Special Teams Player of the Week on Oct. 7 and earned a spot on the Ray Guy Award’s weekly Ray’s 8 list on three occasions. Thirty-seven of his 72 punts were fair caught, 21 were landed inside the 20-yard line and 10 went for 50 yards or more with only one touchback. Only 18 of his punts were returned, for an average of 4.9 yards per return with a long return of 12 yards. He recorded only the second touchback of his career in the fourth quarter of 2019 opener against UCLA and finished 2019 with 68-straight kicks without a touchback.
Entering the 2020 season, Smith is prominent in UC’s punting record book, sitting second all-time in punting average (43.5), fifth in punting yards (8,491) and eighth in total punts (195).
The number of eligible candidates for this season will grow when the award opens nominations on July 23. The complete list of candidates will be released on November 10th. In mid-November, the Ray Guy Award committee will meet to select the ten semifinalists, who will be announced on November 24. A national body of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sports information directors, media representatives and previous Ray Guy Award winners will then vote for the top three finalists to be announced on December 2. 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, December 10, 2020.
UC returns 16 of 22 starters on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, 55 letterwinners and 13 of the team’s top 15 tacklers from the 2019 team which won 11 games, the AAC East Division title and the Birmingham Bowl. The Bearcats ended the season ranked No. 21 in all three major polls, won 11 games for only the fourth time in the program’s 132 seasons and had back-to-back 11-win seasons for only the second time in school history.
The Bearcats are currently set to open 2020 on Thursday, Sept. 3 against Austin Peay inside Nippert Stadium.
