THE FLATS – Georgia Tech senior Pressley Harvin III (Alcolu, S.C./Sumter) was named the winner of the 2020 Ray Guy Award as the college football’s top punter during The Home Depot College Football Awards Show on Thursday night.
After setting Georgia Tech and Atlantic Coast Conference records with a 48.0-yard punting average in 2020, Harvin became Tech’s second Ray Guy Award winner in the 21-year history of the award. Durant Brooks was the Ray Guy Award recipient as a Yellow Jacket in 2007.
Additionally, during Thursday night’s College Football Awards Show it was also revealed that Harvin was named first-team all-America by Walter Camp, which makes him only the third unanimous All-American in Georgia Tech’s illustrious football history, joining Tech legends Calvin Johnson (2006) and Ken Swilling (1990).
The NCAA recognizes unanimous All-Americans as players that receive first-team honors on all of its officially recognized all-America teams. The NCAA currently recognizes the Associated Press (AP), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Sporting News and Walter Camp as its officially recognized all-America selectors. Harvin was tabbed first-team All-America by the AP, AFCA, FWAA and Sporting News last month.
Harvin leads the nation with his 48.0-yard punting average this season. To put his whopping 48.0-yard average into perspective, the margin between Harvin’s average and the third-best average in the nation (46.7 – Washington State’s Oscar Draguicevich) is the same as the margin between Draguicevich and the nation’s ninth-best average (45.4 – San Diego State’s Tanner Kuljian).
In addition to the 48.0-yard average, 49% of Harvin’s 45 punts this season traveled 50 or more yards, 47% were fair caught, 40% were downed inside the opponent’s 20 yard line and only 17% were returned. Thanks in large part to those gaudy numbers, Georgia Tech ranks second nationally as a team in net punting (44.6-yard average).
Harvin averaged at least 51 yards per punt three times in nine games this season (51.2 vs. UCF on Sept. 19, 51.0 at Boston College on Oct. 24 and 51.0 vs. Pitt on Dec. 10). He was named the Ray Guy Award National Punter of the Week twice and one of the award’s “Ray’s 4” recipients (honoring the nation’s four best punters each week) five times. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, he is the only punter in the nation that has had a net punting average of 50 yards in three different games (min. four punts), including twice this season – vs. UCF and at Boston College.
HIGHLIGHTS: 2020 Ray Guy Award winner Pressley Harvin III
Harvin broke the ACC single-season record for punting average of 47.8 yards per punt that was previous set by North Carolina’s Brian Schmitz, 1999. Harvin’s 48.0-yard average shattered Georgia Tech’s single-season school record of 45.6 yards, previously set by Rodney Williams in 1997.
In addition to the national recognition, Harvin was also a landslide selection as first-team all-ACC, receiving 161 total points in all-conference balloting. Only three student-athletes in the entire league received more points than Harvin – Clemson quarterback and ACC Player of the Year Trevor Lawrence, Clemson wide receiver Amari Rodgers and North Carolina wide receiver Dyami Brown.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and the Support The Swarm Fund, created to give fans an opportunity to help Georgia Tech athletics maintain its recent momentum through the financial challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on Twitter (@GTAthletics), Facebook, Instagram or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.