AUGUSTA, Ga. -- San Diego State football's Matt Araiza (San Diego/Rancho Bernardo HS) has been named a finalist for the Ray Guy Award, the Augusta Sports Council announced Tuesday. The award is given annually to the nation's best collegiate punter.
Araiza is one of three finalists for the award, joining Adam Korsak of Rutgers and Jordan Stout of Penn State.
The winner of the Ray Guy Award will be announced at the 31st annual The Home Depot College Football Awards on Thursday, Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. PT. Like last year, the awards show will be a virtual format, hosted live from ESPN's studios in Bristol, Connecticut.
Araiza is the first Aztec finalist for a major award since Rashaad Penny was a Walter Camp Player-of-the-Year finalist in 2017.
It is another 2021 accolade for Araiza, who was named to four midseason All-America teams, including three on first teams (AP, ESPN and Sporting News) and one on the second team (The Athletic), and has been named the Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Week four times.
One of only four players in the country who are handling all three kicking duties (punts, PAT/field goals and kickoffs), Araiza has punted 67 times for 3,472 yards (51.8 avg.) with 34 inside the 20, 16 fair catches and a long of 86 yards, while owning a net punt average of 44.69. He also has made all 36 of his PATs, has 13 field goals, including three 50-yarders, and has kicked off 57 times for 3,702 yards and a 64.95 average (perfect is 65.0) along with 47 touchbacks.
Araiza already owns the NCAA FBS single-season record for the most 50-yard punts (36) and 60-yard punts (17), and is on pace to break Braden Mann's (Texas A&M) record of 50.98 set in 2018.
Araiza leads all FBS players in punt average (51.82), total punt yards (3,472) and punt yards per game (315.64), and is tied for first in punts inside the 20-yard line (34) and PAT percentage (100.00), second in kickoff average (64.95, 1st in MW), fourth in net punt average (44.69, 1st in MW), tied for sixth in total punts (67, 1st in MW) and punts per game (6.09, 2nd in MW), seventh in kickoff touchback percentage (82.46, 1st in MW), tied for 11th in kickoff touchbacks (47, 1st in MW), tied for 22nd in field goal attempts (20, T-5th in MW) and tied for 23rd in field goal attempts per game (1.82, 5th in MW).
Araiza has six punts of at least 70 yards, the most in the country (four are tied for second with two 70-yard punts), including the longest (86 yards), fifth-longest (81, tied), ninth longest (79), 11th longest (77, tied), 16th longest (75, tied) and 26th longest (72, tied).
San Diego State, which at 10-1 has matched its best start since starting 11-0 in its first year of Division I football in 1969, plays host to Boise State at 9 a.m. PT Friday. The Aztecs are ranked 19th in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings (new poll comes out Tuesday), and are 22nd in both the AP Top 25 poll and AFCA Coaches poll.
Matt Araiza Named a Ray Guy Award Finalist
