TSR’s Punter of the Week:
Will Monday – Duke University
Who is he?
21-year old Will Monday is considered one of the top college punters in the nation after gaining attention for punt distance on his high school football team in Flowery Branch, Georgia. A redshirt sophomore at Duke, Monday is a big guy. He’s listed at 6-4, 210 and appears to be every bit of that. He wears uniform #41 and was on the Ray Guy award watch list and All-ACC team before the season started. Monday likes to play golf and often uses the phrase “I’m blessed.” He’s active on Twitter. Monday loves the Zaxby’s restaurant chain, often cites country music lyrics as inspiration and expresses strong faith in God. Punt aficionados best know Monday for his amazing 79-yard punt in last year’s Belk Bowl.
The Monday stat line vs. NC State 11-9-13:
8 punts. 369 yards total. 46.1 yards per. 34.5 net.
The punts in detail:
1. Monday’s first punt was a beauty. Fans at Wallace Wade Stadium on the Duke campus were bundled up but it was actually a great late afternoon for football in Durham. 57 degrees at kickoff with a light wind out of the SSW. Monday’s forearms were fully exposed and his football socks were pulled up high to his knees. The ball was snapped from Duke’s 28. Monday stood 12 yards behind the spot and watched as a blocking tailback shifted from right to left to balance out an overload look by State on the other side of the ball. After a clean snap, Monday took a long step into the ball with his head down and killed it. The crowd ooohed as the ball sailed. Return man Rashard Smith backed up to field the ball at his own 14 and scampered up the middle for a 14-yard return. It was a 58-yard punt. 44 on the net.
2. After a three and out Duke possession that included two dropped passes, Monday came on for his second punt with just under 12 minutes to go in the first half and his team up seven. Wearing thick black strips of sun deflector under each eye, Monday blew on his right hand just before receiving the snap. His approach to the ball after catching it appears a bit more compact than average but he’s such a big guy, I guess he doesn’t need the extra step to gain the momentum or rhythm necessary to kick it far. This one had greater hang time than Monday’s first punt and left Smith with little time to maneuver. It was a 45-yard punt and Smith was hauled down for no gain. A block in the back by State on the return took the ball back another ten on top of that. Shockingly, State went for it on 4th on 1 at their own 26 on their ensuing possession and failed which led to a Duke field goal.
3. Now dark in Durham with the odd 4 PM kickoff and clocks turned back an hour the week before, Monday had his best punt of the day after Duke’s offense stalled on its first offensive set of plays in the second half. He launched it from his own 35 and put it high into the night sky. Return man Smith decided quickly to back away and gamble that the ball would bounce into the end zone. It didn’t. It landed at the 5 and almost immediately laid down like a dead duck. It’s as if the ball was deflated just before it hit the ground. I’m not sure if Monday has the ability to do this intentionally but to lay a ball with almost no bounce like that inside the ten is remarkable. It was a 50-yard punt with no return. Perhaps the fresh sod made a difference. Had it been Field Turf or some other synthetic surface, maybe the ball jumps.
4. It was Monday bloody Monday on this low-trajectory punt as State return man Smith had time to turn on his jets because of the lousy hang time. The line driver from Monday had good distance but horrible hang which left the cover team unprepared for the freight train barreling down the inbound tracks. Smith got it at his 27 and ran it straight up the left side of the field. Monday was the only Dookie to get a hand on him but it was a feeble grab to jar the ball loose and it didn’t affect Smith’s momentum. Smith got a couple key blocks along the way and ran it 73 yards for the TD to help tie the game at 10. Officially, it was a 48-yard punt and a 73-yard return with significant blame attached to the low altitude punt.
5. Fourth quarter in a tight game and Monday had a chance to air one out as he launched from inside his own 5. Unfortunately for Duke it was another flat ride. A dud of a punt at a crucial time. Smith caught it at his 46 and returned it six yards. A block in the back by State took it back ten yards from where Smith was tackled which softened the consequences of the bad 39-yard punt. On the ensuing set of downs, State followed with an even worse punt by its punter Will Baumann. A Baumann shankopotumus flew just 20 yards. Yow.
6. Perhaps cognizant of his previous short punt and the shank that followed by his rival, Monday sought to lengthen extension as he struck the ball at his 35 yard line with 11 minutes and change in the game. The tip of his right foot reached a towering apex – above his lowered head! The ball again failed to gain optimum altitude. It bounced inside the five and darted into the end zone for a touchback. 56-yard punt and 36 on the net. Not great but Monday might have wanted to exorcise jitters with the all-out extension.
7. Technique again changed a bit as Monday tried to put one inside the 20 with seven minutes to go and Duke up 4. From midfield, Monday let the nose of the ball droop straight down on the approach. He apparently sought to get backspin by striking the bottom portion of the pigskin. The ball sailed way too far for another touchback. On TV, ESPNU’s analyst Kelly Stouffer used a golf club analogy to chastise Monday for a wasted opportunity. “He got the wrong stick out of the bag. That’s 20 lost yards that Duke let get away right there,” said Stouffer. Officially, it was a 38-yard punt, 18 on the net.
8. Monday’s final punt of the game came in garbage time. Duke had scored three touchdowns in 26 seconds to seal a 38-20 win. Two of the TD’s came off interception returns. So with 55 seconds to go, Monday punted with no pressure from midfield and executed his first coffin corner kick of the day. It was on the money. It bounced out of bounds at State’s 10. 35-yard punt. Same on the net.
The Sound of a Punt:
Duke’s radio booth tandem has been together for more than 30 years and the chemistry that comes out of the pairing makes for a fun listen. Bob Harris is the play-by-play guy. He’s done both basketball and football games at Duke since 1976. Former Duke wideout Wes Chesson is the analyst. He joined Harris in the football booth in 1982. Heard on WDNC-AM 620 AM “The Buzz” in Durham, this is the Smith/Chesson call of Monday’s punt to open the second half last Saturday night.
The Punt-osis:
With the ugly win over NC State, Duke is guaranteed to finish with a winning record for the first time since 1994. There was some really bad quarterback play in this game but Duke’s redshirt freshman safety DeVon Edwards had an eye-popping performance. He returned a kickoff 100 yards for a TD and had two pick-sixes on top of that. Monday punted eight times and showed flashes of greatness but he needs greater consistency in the hang time department. Just a soph, Monday will have plenty of time to work on elevating his kicks. He already is on the radar of pro scouts which is a big jump on a lot of young punters at the college level. No matter what happens, he’ll hopefully walk out of Duke with a degree. For now, we’ll keep watching Monday punt whenever we can and hope he and the often overlooked Duke football program continue to have success.
-I listened to Wednesday night’s Cate Le Bon spot on Marc Riley’s radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music. Le Bon and three bandmates played three songs from her fantastic new record Mug Museum. In order, they were: I Can’t Help You, No God and Are You With Me Now. Le Bon and her touring band were set up in a studio in London while Riley asked questions from his home base in Manchester. Much of the interview was horsing around by Riley but he did ask Le Bon how she came up with the new album’s title. Le Bon said a friend named Tom noted that her bedroom looked like a “mug museum” because her collection of homemade pottery pieces cluttered the space. “I like the way (Mug Museum) sounded so I stole it. It’s become an imaginary place where the album takes place. Does that make any sense?” Le Bon has settled in Los Angeles from her native Wales and disagreed with Riley’s premise that LA is viewed as a “soul-less” place. Le Bon says she was drawn to LA by a special, tight-knit community of musicians. “I was lucky to be taken under some good people’s wings. There are lots of wonderfully talented and kind musicians,” said Le Bon. When Riley asked Le Bon to name names, she included White Fence drummer Nick Murray who played on the Mug Museum sessions.