LEXINGTON – December 12, 2019 – Keith Taylor
Max Duffy claimed one to college football’s top honors Thursday night during the Home Depot College Football Awards on ESPN in Atlanta.
The University of Kentucky junior punter received the prestigious Ray Guy Award by beating out Sterling Hofrichter (Syracuse) and Dane Roy of Houston.
Duffy became the first punter from Kentucky to capture the award and the fourth from the Southeastern Conference. Drew Butler (Georgia), Chas Henry (Florida) and Braden Mann of Texas A&M have also won the award.
Duffy, of Perth, Australia, has flipped the field on several occasions for the Widlcts with his booming leg. He averaged 48.6 yards on 47 punting attempts, which ranked him No., 1 in the nation and first in the conference. He booted a 70-yard punt and converted a fake punt into a first down in a 29-7 win over Missouri.
“He’s a weapon,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said during the regular season. “You can’t faze him. ‘Yeah, coach,’ you know, he’s not real worried about anything. I mean that in a good way, like he cares a great deal, he loves the team and he cares, but he, yeah, he’s a different dude, you know.”
Also on Thursday, Duffy was named a first-team All-American by Walter Camp. Josh Allen was named to the team a year ago and nine other UK players have been named to the squad as well. He recently earned first-team All-SEC honors by the AP, first-team All-America by the FWAA and was a second-team choice by the league coaches.
The Walter Camp All-America team will be honored on Jan. 18 at Yale University.