SMU P Ryan Bujcevski named to Ray Guy award watch list
DALLAS (SMU)– SMU punter Ryan Bujcevski has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2023 Ray Guy Award, the Augusta Georgia Sports Council announced on Wednesday.
The award honors the nation’s top collegiate punter in the FBS. The 50 candidates on the list incorporate a broad spectrum of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) punters. The 2023 watch list was compiled based on the 2022 Ray Guy Award Semifinalist List, the top 10 NCAA Punters from 2022, the 2022 All-Conference teams, the 2022 All-American Teams, the 2023 pre-season All-Conference Teams and eligible punters on the 2022 watchlist.
Last season, Bujcevski played in all 13 games and punted 40 times for 1,747 yards with a long of 64 yards. He had eight punts over 50 yards, 21 fair caught and 15 inside the 20 yard-line. The graduate student was named to the Ray Guy Award Watch List and Pro Football Focus All-AAC Second Team last year. Bujcevski was named to the Preseason Athlon Sports Preseason All-AAC Third-Team, and Phil Steele Preseason Second Team All-AAC.
The number of eligible candidates for this season will grow when the award opens nominations on August 3. The complete list of candidates will be released on November 6th. In mid-November, the Ray Guy Award committee will meet to select the 10 semifinalists, who will be announced on November 10th. A national body of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sports information directors, media representatives and previous Ray Guy Award winners will then vote for the top three finalists to be announced on November 22nd. After the finalists are named, the voting body will cast ballots again to select the nation’s top punter. The winner will be announced live during The Home Depot College Football Awards airing on ESPN in December 2023.
The preseason honors continue to roll in for SMU as a handful have already earned preseason recognition by Phil Steele, Athlon Sports, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, East-West Shrine Bowl and College Football Network.
The Mustangs kick off the 2023 season against Louisiana Tech on Saturday, Sept. 2, at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. Season tickets are available at SMUMustangs.com/tickets or by calling 214-SMU-GAME. For any additional ticket questions, please contact 214-SMU-GAME or email [email protected].
It’s a new era of Athletics at SMU. In the classroom and on the field, SMU is driving excellence and growth to be among the best athletics programs in the country. We are bringing the highest level of collegiate competition to Dallas, which was recently named the No. 1 city for sports business by the Sports Business Journal, and building on our recent success, with all 17 programs reaching the postseason and 15 programs winning conference championships since 2013. SMU is the only NCAA FBS program in Dallas, and has claimed nine overall national championships, almost 200 team conference championships, over 100 individual national championships, more than 150 NCAA top-10 finishes, nearly 2,000 All-American honors and over 150 Olympic appearances. Since 2013, SMU has invested over $250 million to develop and enhance championship-caliber facilities.
Editor’s Note: SMU press release.
