It’s punter season.

Penn State football’s Riley Thompson was named to the Ray Guy Award watch list, the Augusta Sports Council announced Tuesday. The award is presented annually to college football’s best punter.

Thompson, a senior from Melbourne, Australia, is entering his first year as Penn State’s punter. While he hasn’t claimed the starting role yet, Thompson is expected to feature on fourth down for the Nittany Lions.

Thompson comes to Penn State after two seasons at Deakin University in Australia and one season at FAU. In 2022, he punted 61 times for FAU, recording an average of 45.4 yards per punt, along with a longest punt of 71 yards. He placed 26 of his punt attempts inside the 20-yard line, and punted 15 balls over 50 yards.

Thompson was named to the watch list alongside 14 other punters, including Illinois’ Hugh Robertson.

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Joe Lister

Joe, shockingly, was Onward State's managing editor from 2024-25. It was an honor. He's off employed doing journalism things, hopefully. If you want to complain about anything he's ever written, you can find him on Twitter (iamjoelister), email ([email protected]), or Signal (iamjoelister.93).

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