LET'S GET READY TO.... PPPPPPPUNT.
Tory Taylor
— Heavens! (@HeavensFX) September 20, 2022
Adam Korsak
Dont miss the Punt-Off Of The Century!#IOWAvsRUTGERS pic.twitter.com/6JpntXs78i
The stage is set for punting game of the year decade century is set to take place in Piscataway, NJ on Saturday night. In one corner? Returning second-team All-American Adam Korsak of Rutgers. In the other corner? Iowa's Tory Taylor, leading the nation in multiple punting categories this season. Korsak and Taylor, both natives of Melbourne, Australia, and graduates of Prokick Australia, are ready for their close-up -- although as punters, you're going to want to zoom out to get the best view of them putting their gifts to work.
Granted, appearances by a punter are not guaranteed. Offensive and defensive players are guaranteed to see the field and have plenty of opportunities to show their worth. Punters only see action if one unit (the offense) fails. If the offense is converting first downs and scoring points, punters have very uneventful days. As a purely technical matter, that outcome -- rousing offensive displays by the Iowa and Rutgers offenses that keep Taylor and Korsak pinned to the sideline all evening long -- is possible.
But we covered this already when discussing this game and the potential for a historically low total. Iowa has a very good defense. Rutgers also seems to have a very stout defense. Iowa has a very poor offense. Rutgers also seems to have a fairly poor offense. We can all do that math, right? As Kevin Garnett once screamed, "Anything is possible!!!!!!" But the likelihood of Iowa and Rutgers playing a who-can-top-this offensive shootout and leaving Korsak and Taylor idle is tiny. Infinitesimally small. Korsak and Taylor are gonna get their reps in. And when they do, the results should be some outrageously good punting.
The stats both men have posted are remarkable. Korsak should be familiar to Iowa fans -- he was the best part of the Rutgers team that got blanked 30-0 by Iowa the last time these teams met, in 2019. If not for Korsak's powerful leg, the final margin in that game likely would have been even uglier -- he dropped seven of his ten punts inside the 20-yard line, five inside the 8-yard line, and three inside the 5-yard line. He was so spectacular in that game that Iowa fans were -- legitimately -- outraged when he didn't win Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week and raged against the Big Ten on his behalf.
Korsak wasn't just a one-game wonder, either. He set an NCAA record in 2021 with a net punting average of 45.25 yards per kick and he's boomed 50 kicks at least 50+ yards. He's also never (ever) had a kick blocked. And he owns one of the most incredible streaks in the NCAA -- 136 consecutive attempts without a touchback. And his last touchback? Only happened because his coach directed him to hit it into the end zone. That's outrageous. Even Taylor, as excellent as he's been this season, has had five touchbacks on his punts. The combination of height, distance, and accuracy that Korsak is able to punt on his punts is remarkable in a punter.
Coming soon to a screen near you#TaylorvsKorsak #IowavsRutgers pic.twitter.com/opPvAQiQOa
— Heavens! (@HeavensFX) September 21, 2022
But our local punting hero is no slouch himself. Taylor had never even watched an American football game in-person before arriving on campus in 2020, but it didn't take him to long to get up to speed -- he averaged 44.1 yards per kick and dropped 18 kicks inside the 20-yard line while earning Big Ten Punter of the Year honors as a true freshman. His overall numbers dipped slightly last year, but his ability as a field position-flipping maestro still came through clearly in multiple games, especially in consistently pinning Iowa State and Penn State deep.
This year, Taylor seems to have taken his game to another level. He's third in the nation in punting average (48.26) and leads the nation in punts deposited inside the 20-yard line (13) and in kicks of 50+ yards (11). Granted, Taylor also has a higher volume of punting this year than nearly any other punter -- his 23 total punts is the fifth-most in the NCAA this season and two of the players with more punts him have played in four games while Taylor has only played in three. His 1110 total punting yards is also second-best nationally (though the leader, Nevada's Matt Freem with 1123 yards, has played in four games), but that too is partly a function of the high volume of kicks he's attempting every game (7.7, 3rd-most in the NCAA). But there's nothing Taylor can do to control that -- his job is just to walk on the field when the offense falters and pin the opponent as deep as possible. It's not his fault the Iowa offense is hopelessly inept and gives him plenty of chances each week to do just that.
Look, as Iowa fans it's not as though we're unaccustomed to the best players on the team being at less-conventional positions. The best player last year was a center (Tyler Linderbaum). The best player two years ago was a defensive tackle (Daviyon Nixon). In 2019 Iowa's best players were an offensive tackle (Tristan Wirfs) and a kicker (Keith Duncan). Every now and then Iowa gets a great player at a flashy position (Brad Banks, Shonn Greene, T.J. Hockenson, Noah Fant, A.J. Epenesa, Desmond King), but that's certainly not the norm. And there are other very good players on this team (we see you, Jack Campbell), but this year the Iowa MVP is the punter -- it's Tory Taylor's world and we're just living in it, oohing and aahing as the punts rain down.
There will probably not be very many points scored in the Iowa-Rutgers game tomorrow night. But there probably will be a prodigious amount of prolific punts launched off the phenomenal feet of a pair of peerless punting prodigies. Punting has a long and storied tradition at Iowa. Reggie Roby, perhaps the GOAT of punters, is a Hawkeye alum. Hell, Iowa plays in a stadium named after a legend who just so happened to be a pretty terrific punter. Nile Kinnick won the Heisman for his prowess on offense and defense -- but he was also an excellent punter. Our admiration for punting runs deep -- and on Saturday we could get to see two punting Picassos try to paint their masterpieces.
Bring it on.
