Punter’s journey ends as semi-finalist

Despite being a top-three punter in average yards all season, junior punter Ian Campbell was not named one of three finalists for the Ray Guy Award Nov. 21.

Campbell is having his best season as a Miner in 2011, averaging nearly 46.4 yards a punt, the third best average in the nation right now. His efforts made him one of 10 semi-finalists for the award, but that was as far as his quest for nation's best punter would go.

Campbell missed the cut behind Louisiana Tech's junior Ryan Allen, Auburn's sophomore Steven Clark and Oregon's junior Jackson Rice.

"It is a little (disappointing), but I have to look forward and I definitely need a couple of more fair catches to persuade the Augusta council," Campbell said.

Campbell improved his average of 45.1 yards from a year ago, which placed him 11th in the country. Of the 51 times Campbell punted the ball in 2010, 17 were over 50 yards and 15 were placed inside the 20-yard line.

In 2011, Campbell has punted the ball 42 times with 16 of them over 50 yards and 15 inside the 20-yard line. His longest for the season was of 71 yards against Stony Brook Sept. 3 in the season opener, a yard short of matching his career long as a Miner of 72 against Rice in 2010.

Special teams coordinator Jeff Banks said that setting goals for Campbell has helped him improve his stats over one year and helped the team with their goals.

"We want to be number one in the nation in net punting and the way we can do that is if he punts the ball high, far and places it correctly," Banks said. "Last year, he averaged about 45 yards per punt and I said, ‘hey, you're not that far behind the leaders if you continue to work hard for next season' and that's exactly what he did."

Campbell played his freshman season at Mt. San Antonio College, the same college that junior quarterback Nick Lamaison, junior wide receiver Mike Edwards and junior offensive lineman James Martin attended the last two years. Campbell came to UTEP in 2010 and had to endure an adjustment to the Division-1 level. One year later, he feels he has finally found his niche.

"Last year was kind of my getting used to Division-1 playing with all these crowds, playing in hostile environments," Campbell said. "This year, it's just me getting into a rhythm. I've gotten into a pretty good rhythm this season and I'm just trying to ride it out throughout the rest of the season."

Fellow kicker and freshman Steven Valadez, who also serves as punter, feels like the competition among the kickers have helped the play of the special teams.

"Ever since I got here, I remember coach Banks talking about competing, especially at (Camp) Socorro. I felt like I made both (Campbell) and (junior kicker) Dakota (Warren) work a lot more compared to last year that they didn't really have any competition," Valadez said. "He worked his butt off at Socorro and it's how hard work pays off. He's just someone I look up to. Hopefully I can do the same thing in years coming."

Banks said Campbell's confidence has allowed him to be more consistent and place the ball where he needs to, which has helped in coverage.

"We're a directional punting team and that's not easy to do. Most guys can just walk down the middle and punt it down the middle as far and as high as they want," Banks said. "He's doing this, leading the country most of the year being as successful as he's been and having to directional punt. Our coverage has been phenomenal because of his ability."

Campbell said he worked on his technique throughout the offseason and has seen the improvement he's made. Being named a semi-finalist is something he's aware of but he's trying to keep his focus on the games and not the award.

Daniel Ornelas may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.