Anger named Ray Guy Award finalist
Senior California punter Bryan Anger was one of 54 players announced on Monday as official candidates for the 2011 Ray Guy Award by the Augusta Sports Council.
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Anger -- who was one of five players named to a preseason watch list prior to the 2011 campaign -- has twice been a semifinalist for the award given annually to the nation's top punter (2008 and '10), as well as been on the watch list in each of his four collegiate seasons.
The list will be narrowed to ten semifinalists to be announced on November 11. Following the announcement of semifinalists, a national body of Football Bowl Subdivision sports information directors, coaches, media representatives and previous Ray Guy Award winners will vote for the top three finalists, who will be identified on November 21. The voting body will then cast ballots to select the winner.
The presentation of the Ray Guy Award will be featured on The Home Depot College Football Awards live on Thursday, December 8 at 9:00 pm ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The show will feature live presentation of nine player awards, along with the recipients of Disney's Spirit Award, The Home Depot Coach of the Year Award, the NCFAA (National College Football Awards Association) Contributions to College Football Award, and student-athletes selected to the Walter Camp All-America Team.
The Augusta Sports Council created the Ray Guy Award in 2000 to honor College Football Hall of Fame inductee Ray Guy. The winner is determined by a national voting body of sports writers, college coaches, sports information directors and past winners. Among the statistics used to identify the winner is net punting average, number of times a punt is downed or kicked out of bounds inside the opponents 20-yard line, total yardage punted, average returned yardage, and percentage of punts not returned. The winner must display team leadership, self-discipline, and have a positive impact on the team's success.
Anger, who broke Scott Tabor's 23-year-old single-season Cal record with a 45.6 yard punting average in 2010, was selected by Phil Steele as a 2011 midseason honorable mention All-American after receiving preseason third-team honorable mention recognition from Steele.
After a rare subpar performance in the season opener against Fresno State due mainly to the near-exclusive use of the rugby-style punt, Anger has moved up 51 spots into the No. 12 position nationally with a season-high 45.20 yard per punt average. Anger is also third in the Pac-12 with the mark that is tied for the third-best single-season average all-time at Cal. Should Anger end up above Tabor's 45.3 number posted in 1987 he would end up with the top two seasons in Cal history in his final two campaigns.
Anger was named a National Punter Performer of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards in his most recent contest at UCLA last Saturday after averaging 49.6 yards overall and 49.0 yards net on five punts, including a season-long 64-yard bomb. Anger pinned the Bruins inside their own 20-yard line a career-high-tying three times, forced a season-high two fair catches and had a season-high-tying three punts of 50 or more yards. Anger had previously been selected as a 2011 honorable mention Punter Performer of the Week by the CFPA three times after his performances against Colorado, Washington and Utah.
Now in his fourth season as Cal's starting punter, Anger has punted 237 times in his career for 10,331 yards and an average of 43.6 yards per punt, which is second all-time at Cal and just shy of Tabor's career record of 44.0 from 1986-87. He was named the Pac-10 Special Teams Player of the Week three times, picking up the honor once in each season from 2008-10.