Iowa’s Tory Taylor wins 2023 Ray Guy Award

IOWA CITY — Tory Taylor’s punting is winning more awards.

Taylor has won the 2023 Ray Guy Award, which goes to the best punter in college football.

Taylor has averaged 47.9 yards per punt this season in an FBS-high 86 attempts.

With a career average of 46.2 yards per punt, Taylor is at pace to — depending on what happens in the Citrus Bowl — set the NCAA record for yards per punt among players with at least 250 career attempts.

Taylor is Iowa’s first recipient of the Ray Guy Award since the award’s inception in 2000. He is the Big Ten’s second consecutive winner after Rutgers’ Adam Korsak won the award last year.

Taylor said on ESPN it was an “absolute honor” to win the award.

“I know I’m the one that is going to receive the award from an individual standpoint, but there’s a lot more that goes into it,” Taylor said. “(Long snapper) Luke Elkin, who’s sitting behind me — he deserves this just as much as me, as well as the other guys on the punt unit.”

The other finalists this year were Vanderbilt’s Matthew Hayball and Florida State’s Alex Mastromanno. Hayball averaged 47.6 yards per punt this season, and Mastromanno averaged 45.3 yards.

Taylor already has been named the Big Ten Punter of the Year. (He also received the conference’s award as a freshman in 2020.)

The next possible accolade to watch will be to see if Taylor can achieve consensus All-America status. Taylor earned a first-team spot on the Walter Camp Football Foundation’s All-American team Friday evening.

The other four All-America teams that determine consensus status will be released next week.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com