BYU punter Jonny Linehan awarded football scholarship

Jonny Linehan, the New Zealander formerly known as "Jonny Rugby" for his legendary BYU Rugby career, recently received exciting news when Kalani Sitake announced that he was going to be placed on scholarship with the football team for his Senior season. Linehan was a walk-on punter for the football team last year while also playing Rugby.

Just this February, Linehan made the decision to skip BYU's rugby season and focus his efforts exclusively on football. He explained via Twitter "Part of my reason for choosing to stick with football is I didn't achieve my personal goals I set for myself last year. I am far too competitive to give and settle for less than my best."

Although Linehan didn't reach his personal goals last year, he had an impressive season playing football at the Division I level. New to the game of football, he still managed to become BYU's starting punter from day one and made his competitive football debut in front of 90,000 rabid Nebraska Cornhusker fans where he punted 5 times for 255 yards, including an unheard of 77-yarder. He ended the season averaging 42.7 yards per punt (39th in Division I).

It's great to hear Linehan has been placed on scholarship. He's earned it and has received a ton of support from teammates, coaches, and fans.

Here's a few of the congratulatory tweets:

Welcome back to @tejankoroma56 and to @jlinehan9 for earning a scholarship. Much love to them and the rest of the squad

— Harvey Langi (@LANGI21) May 11, 2016

This is what happens when I take my hat off for 2 minutes while signing at the Lehi #BYUFanFest.. I'll treasure this pic.twitter.com/E8e9ghrNYF

— Jonny Linehan (@jlinehan9) May 13, 2016