Florida’s Christy wins punter trophy

Kyle Christy will be honored inside the O-Dome on Wednesday night for his ability that likely could have him punting a football over it.

The Florida Gators’ strong-legged sophomore has been named the 2012 winner of the College Football Performance Awards Punter trophy. He’ll be honored during the first half of Florida’s men’s basketball season opener against Georgia, which tips off at 7 p.m.

Christy, who is the fourth UF punter to receive a CFPA award, led the SEC in punting and was a finalist for the Ray Guy Award in 2012. He averaged 45.8 yards per punt with 25 of 50-plus yards and 27 inside opponents’ 20-yard line.

The Brownburg, Ind., native was a first-team All-SEC punter and was named to All-American teams by CBSSports.com and Walter Camp Football. He set a single-game school record with an average of 54.3 yards per punt, including a season-long of 64 yards, in a 44-11 home win against South Carolina on Oct. 20.

Florida’s Andre Debose and Chas Henry earned CFPA honors in 2010 while Caleb Sturgis won in 2011.

Perhaps after receiving the honor on Wednesday night Christy can go outside to find out if he can in fact boot one over the O-Dome.

 

mikecapshaw
Mike Capshaw brings a wealth of experience to the Gator Country team. He’s been overseeing all editorial aspects of GatorCountry.com and Gator Country magazine by managing our team of staffers, interns and freelancers. He is now moving into a bigger role as a reporter by covering the football and basketball beats as well as providing coverage of all sports on campus. Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Because Mike puts family ahead of his career, he left the place where he was established when his wife received an opportunity to further her career at UF. He took a leap of faith that he could find a job in the Gainesville area and worked for a year at a newspaper group before joining the Gator Country family in November, 2011. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting. You can follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeCapshawGC.