Illinois Punter Blake Hayes Pulled Off A Perfect Punt Against Purdue

There are three phases to the game of American football, and don’t you ever forget it.

Offense and defense get all the attention in football, but special teams is a crucial factor in every game. It can, in some instances, literally flip a result in a team’s favor, especially when you have a punter like Blake Hayes.

The Illinois punter was not on the Ray Guy Award watch list coming into his junior season, but he’s certainly turning heads of voters after a huge performance on Saturday against Purdue. The junior may only be 14th in the nation in net punting yardage, but it’s not always about how far you boot it, but where it goes.

In the second quarter of a low-scoring 3-0 game, Hayes was asked to punt from the Illini 34. He got off a beauty that sailed down the left sideline, hit the turf inside the 20 and then started bouncing toward the end zone. This is where special teams coaches cringe and hope outkicking your coverage leads to a touchback, but Hayes has the punting gods on his side today.

That’s right, the ball cruised along the sideline, hit the pylon and stopped dead just before the goal line.

The ball actually bounced on the sideline at the 1, which is where officials ruled it dead. That’s good for a 66-yard punt that pinned Purdue back deep in their own end, a piece of perfection you truly have to savor in this cruelly imperfect world.

Hayes later got himself out of trouble by fielding a high snap and managing to get off another good punt later in the game.

A big boot AND a pure athlete? Goodness gracious, I may need to lie down for a minute.