Another big day of punting for Tory Taylor on Saturday, another Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week honor for Taylor on Monday. For the third time this season (and the sixth time in his Iowa career), Tory Taylor has been honored as the Big Ten's Special Teams Player of the Week.
In Iowa's 15-13 win over Illinois, Taylor punted the ball eight times for 413 yards, an average of 51.6 yards per punt. Six of Taylor's eight punts went for 50+ yards and two were downed inside the 20-yard line (and a few more narrowly missed being downed inside the 20 by Iowa's coverage unit).
During the game, Taylor became Iowa's all-time leader in punts, with 274 (and counting) for his Hawkeye career, breaking Jason Baker's former record of 272 punts from 1997 to 2000. Taylor had already broken Baker's Iowa career record for career punting yards (11,304) earlier this season. Taylor currently has 12,647 punting yards (and counting) for his Iowa career.
Taylor has broken those records by virtue of an abundance of opportunities (Taylor has racked up 234 punts since the start of the 2021 season) brought on by the the struggles of Iowa's offense over the past three seasons. Yet Iowa has also gone 27-11 since the start of the 2021 season and Taylor's powerful punting has been a key factor in several of those wins, with his punts often helping Iowa flip field position and gain small advantages that contribute to Iowa victories.
Taylor was named a semifinalist for the Ray Guy award, awarded to the best punter in the nation, earlier this month. The finalists for the Ray Guy award are set to be announced on November 22.
