LA Tech's Ryan Allen Wins Ray Guy Award
By: Brandon Dunn
Updated: August 10, 2012
ORLANDO, Fla. (Dec. 8, 2011) - Louisiana Tech's Ryan Allen received the Ray Guy Award Thursday evening at the Home Depot College Football Awards, an honor given to the nation's top punter. The award was announced on a live national broadcast on ESPN.
Allen is only the second player from Louisiana Tech to win a national award, joining Troy Edwards' 1998 Biletnikoff Award. He was named a finalist for the Ray Guy Award on Nov. 21, the third player in school history to be named a finalist for a national award. Willie Roaf was a 1992 Outland Trophy finalist.
The accolade comes after Allen was named second team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation.
A native of Salem, Ore., Allen finished the regular season ranked first in the nation in punts inside the 20 (37) and punts inside the 10 (20) and third in punting average (46.31 yards per punt). He has 29 punts of over 50 yards this season and four of his punts rank in the top 10 in school history. Allen has had only five touchbacks in his 78 total punts and of the 26 punts to be returned by other teams, 11 have been returned for one, zero or negative yards.
Allen returns to Ruston on Friday in time for Louisiana Tech's fifth of 10 practices on campus in preparation for the team's San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl game against No. 15 TCU.
