There are few jobs in sports that are more thankless than being a punter. Fans hate the sight of you, because it means an offensive possession has failed. Kick it well, and nobody notices because that\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do. Screw it up, and you\u2019ll be on every highlight for a week and a half.<\/p>\n
But Michigan State\u2019s Ryan Eckley is the rare exception. He\u2019s made headlines with his kicking, and not his mistakes.<\/p>\n
Eckley was outstanding in 2024, earning a second team all-conference selection. In the first game this season against Western Michigan, he averaged over 51 yards per punt, and pinned the Broncos inside the 20 four<\/em> times. His fourth punt that checked up beautifully at the 1-yard-line led to a Western Michigan safety on the following play.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the idea of complimentary football,” Eckley said. “Special teams helping defense, helping offense. That\u2019s what we\u2019re working for.”<\/p>\n That type of kicking is what put Ryan Eckley on the preseason watchlist for the Ray Guy Award, which recognizes the top punter in the country.<\/p>\n But Eckley downplayed the importance of that award while speaking with the media.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean it would be cool, but I\u2019m not up at night thinking about winning the Ray Guy Award,” he said. “I\u2019m thinking about winning each game at a time. An award is an award\u2026 I\u2019m just going to punt the ball at the best level I can, and if it happens it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n If he is a serious candidate at the end of the season, Eckley may have some special teams versatility to add to his resume. Already handling punting and kickoff duties, he was pressed into placekicking after a couple injuries to MSU\u2019s starting kickers.<\/p>\n Even though his kick from 46 yards missed, Eckley said he has no concerns about being called on as a long-distance kicker if needed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve always had in the back of my mind,” he said. “Especially for the NFL, being able to do all three (kickoff, punt, placekicking) is something that is nice to have in the bag. I\u2019m pretty comfortable doing all three.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the injuries to MSU\u2019s kickers are not considered to be season-ending, it\u2019s possible we haven\u2019t seen the last of Eckley as Michigan State\u2019s primary placekicker. And he\u2019s fine with that.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt confident and calm running out there. I just wrapped the kick a little bit.”<\/p>\n But he remains confident in his kicking abilities, citing successful attempts from as far as 60 yards back in the MSU indoor facility.<\/p>\n \u201cI still have the leg to make it. It\u2019s just finding the accuracy and consistency because I\u2019m not doing it (placekicking) as often as I used to.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan Eckley is the latest MSU punter to gain national attention for his ability to flip field position. But he was quick to point out how much special teams as a unit means to the Michigan State football program.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019ve really emphasized as being a huge part of our program, being bought in to special teams,” Eckley said. “We have a graphic that we pop up of guys that have played here and how much money they\u2019ve made in the NFL just playing special teams.\u201d<\/p>\n But even a special teams ace like Eckley can\u2019t resist dreaming of finding the end zone himself. When asked to describe the ultimate experience on the field, Eckley quickly answered, \u201cscoring a touchdown\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI gotta score at some point,” Eckley said. “I can\u2019t tell you how it would look. That\u2019s to see on a Saturday\u201d.<\/p>\n While Eckley might not be that<\/em> type of weapon for Michigan State, he is a dangerous one in his current role. That is, as long as he provides his right leg with the rest it needs. Handling punting, kicking, and placekicking responsibilities is unusual.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s day by day. Some days like today, I rested more than I kicked. Yesterday was a full day.\u201d<\/p>\n But whether it\u2019s punting, placekicking, kicking off, running, or passing, Ryan Eckley is going to be there when his number is called.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always thinking the sky\u2019s the limit,” he said. “I don\u2019t want to set limits on myself. We go out there and execute at the highest level, we can do some pretty cool stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ryan Eckley is a certified field-flipper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":21733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[59,191,189,504,516],"class_list":["post-21714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-featured","tag-michigan-state-football","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-news","tag-ryan-eckley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartanshadows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}