How Notre Dame punter Jon Sot can stamp name among Irish’s all-time best

The punting position was a bit of a mystery for Notre Dame entering the 2022 season. Three-year starter Jay Bramblett went closer to home down south to follow former Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly to Baton Rouge. He left a mighty big void in his wake.

Bramblett averaged 41.6 yards per punt at Notre Dame, which ranks fourth all-time for the Irish. He punted 165 times from 2019-21. Only seven other players had more punts in their Notre Dame careers.

Enter Harvard graduate transfer Jon Sot.

The walk-on isn’t going to bypass Bramblett for total boots in a Notre Dame uniform. This is his final collegiate season. He just might go by his predecessor in punting average, though. He’s well on his way through Week 10, averaging 43.7 yards per punt on 39 attempts. That figure would rank No. 7 all-time for a single season at Notre Dame and No. 3 all-time for a career if it held up for the entire season.

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Notre Dame all-time career punting average leaders

Player	Average
1. Craig Hentrich (1989-92)	44.1
2. Tyler Newsome (2015-18)	44.0
3. Jon Sot (2022)	43.7*
4. Geoffrey Price (2004-07)	43.6
5. Jay Bramblett (2019-21)	41.6
6. Kyle Brindza (2011-14)	41.3
7. Vince Phelan (1987)	40.8
8. Bill Shakespeare (1933-35)	40.71
9. Blair Kiel (1980-83)	40.67
10. Joey Hildbold (1999-02)	40.3

The Irish record book has a minimum of 50 punts necessary to qualify for the statistic. If Sot continues to average 4.3 punts per game as he had through nine games, he’d hit the requirement in the final regular season game of the year at USC on Nov. 26.

Sot shining as a punter has been part of a Notre Dame special teams resurgence led by first-year coordinator Brian Mason, who head coach Marcus Freeman pulled away from Cincinnati in the offseason.

Mason is impressed with Sot’s entire arsenal.

“Just having the biggest leg doesn’t make you the best punter or the best punt team,” Mason said. “You have to perform in different situations based on where you’re at on the field, where you’re at in the game, what the punt return team is giving you. There’s a couple of instances we’d like to have back — especially in the BYU game — but as a whole we’ve done a good job.

 “And he’s in his fifth year. He’s training at a higher level here with [strength] coach [Matt] Balis. Harvard cancelled its season [in 2020] and they didn’t train as much. I think all those things have allowed him [to excel].”

**This Notre Dame football article will appear in the next magazine issue of Blue & Gold Illustrated. Sign up for a subscription or order a single issue here.**