Ray Guy Award Watch List: Ranking the Top 10 Candidates

With the college football season quickly approaching, the watch lists for each award are slowly beginning to be released. One of the lists that has been announced is for the Ray Guy Award, which is awarded to the nation's top punter.

Punters may not receive much credit for what they do on the football field, but we have seen in recent years just how important a great special teams can be to a football team. This award was first given out back in 2000 and is named after former Southern Mississippi great and All-Pro NFL player, Ray Guy.

With many candidates on the watch list, here are the top 10 candidates for the award in 2012.

10. Quinn Sharp, Oklahoma State

Quinn Sharp may be the best special teams player in the entire country. He handles the kickoff duties, field goals and punting for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. As a punter, he finished third in the country last season, averaging 46.28 yards per attempt. He was the first-team All-Big 12 kicker and punter a season ago, when he boomed 21 of his 47 punts over 50 yards.

9. Ron Doherty, Kansas

Ron Doherty had the 27th-highest punt average in the country at 42.78 yards, which was also good for third in the conference. He was a Big-12 honorable mention last season, finished the year with 50-yard punts in nine of the last 10 games and pinned 15 of his 64 attempts inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

8. Ian Campbell, UTEP

Ian Campbell was a Ray Guy Award semi-finalist last season, averaging 46.13 yards per attempt, good for fourth in the country. He came from a junior college, and has been extremely valuable to the Miners the last two seasons, averaging over 45 yards per punt in his first two years.

7. Brett Maher, Nebraska

Brett Maher handles all of the special teams duties for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, as he was named first-team All-Big Ten placekicker and punter last season. He was also named a Ray Guy Award semi-finalist. He averaged 44.51 yards per punt, which was good for 10th in the country, and connected on 82 percent of his field goals.

6. Bobby Cowan, Idaho

Bobby Cowan could probably play linebacker at 6'5", 229 pounds, but I'm sure Idaho likes him exactly where he is. He finished second in the country, averaging 46.41 yards per attempt and was a Ray Guy Award semi-finalist last season. A total of 32 of his 88 punts went for at least 50 yards, and he had two of them over 70 yards.

5. Jackson Rice, Oregon

Jackson Rice was one of three finalists for the Ray Guy Award last season. He was named to the All-Pac 12 second team and averaged 45.85 yards per attempt. He also pinned 17 of his 48 attempts inside the opponent's 20-yard line. He was a big reason the Oregon Ducks finished eighth in the country, averaging 44.98 yards per punt.

4. Dylan Breeding, Arkansas

Dylan Breeding averaged 45.28 yards a kick, which was good for seventh in the country. He was named second-team All-SEC and kicked 17 of his 53 attempts over 50 yards, while his longest was a ridiculous 70-yard bomb. In every game in which he attempted at least one punt, he averaged at least 40 yards for that contest. 

3. Steven Clark, Auburn

Steven Clark became the first punter in Auburn history to be a finalist for the Ray Guy Award. He averaged 40.85 yards an attempt and was named Coaches' All-SEC first-team. He isn't quite known for his average, but he kicks the ball as high as anybody on this list and gives his teammates plenty of time to get downfield.

2. Ryan Allen, Louisiana Tech

Ryan Allen won this award last season, averaging 46.12 yards per attempt, which was good for fifth in the country. He led the nation with 39 punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line and 22 punts inside the 10-yard line. He is looking to become just the second punter to win this award twice in a career. (The first was Baylor's Daniel Sepulveda)

1. Brad Wing, LSU

While LSU received a ton of credit last season for a great defense and running game, punter Brad Wing was a very valuable piece to the team's success as well. He is a left-footed kicker, who finished 11th in the country, averaging 44.37 yards per attempt. He was a first-team All-American last season as a freshman and has placed 45 percent of his kicks inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

If Wing has another season like he did last year, this award will be gift-wrapped for him.