Tennessee football: Paxton Brooks makes “Ray’s 4”
Punter Paxton Brooks was elite for the Tennessee football Volunteers at the Georgia Bulldogs.
Not everything was negative for Tennessee football in its loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. One consistent bright spot, even into the second half, has been a bright spot for the Vols dating back to the early 2000s.
Junior punter Paxton Brooks was one of the four players named to the Ray Guy Award’s “Ray’s 4” this past weekend. The “Ray’s 4” recognizes four punters each week for their standout performances, and Brooks certainly had one of those.
Joining the Tennessee football punter were Kyle Ulbrich of the MTSU Blue Raiders, Lou Hedley of the Miami Hurricanes and Zach Von Rosenburg of the LSU Tigers. Ulbrich was the only one to play on a winning team this past weekend. The award announced the punters on Twitter.
Here are the #RAYS4 for week 6 games! Fan vote link for #OURGUY in our bio! pic.twitter.com/epvpoKJLOR
— Ray Guy Award (@RayGuyAward) October 12, 2020
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At Georgia, Brooks had six punts. Four of them either sailed 50-plus yards or pinned the Dawgs inside the 20-yard line. He averaged 47.2 yards per punt, nailed a 55-yarder and pinned UGA on the five-yard line with one punt.
Simply put, the guy was awesome. Now, he could have been better, given the fact that he had a couple of 40-plus yards that could have gone 50-plus yards to pin Georgia back. However, this was still a great performance.
Heading into the year, Brent Cimaglia was considered a bigger strength at place kicking than Brooks at punting. However, Cimaglia is only one-of-three through three games on field goals. To be fair, he still hasn’t missed an extra point.
Next. Five takeaways from Vols' 44-21 loss at Georgia. dark
Meanwhile, this is Brooks’ first full year starting, as he only started the second half of last year. He has upped his average to 44 yards a punt and has a net average of 42.6 yards. He has pinned nine of his 14 punts inside the 20-yard line and sent four 50 yards or more. With this recognition over the weekend, he’s keeping the Punter U title with Tennessee football.