Countdown to Kickoff (89): Who will handle BYU’s punting duties?

The football season might seem in the distance but here at Vanquish the Foe we’re counting down the days until the first game against the Utes. To help ease out way unto the season we’re going to spend every day exploring a specific question pertaining to BYU Football. Some of the questions will focus on important topics (offensive play calling) and others will explore the subjects of a rather...inconsequential nature. Today we talk about PUNTERS.

We got a treat yesterday with Jake Welch’s breakdown of the kicker position, and we continue the special teams theme today with a breakdown of the rarely talked about, but always important punter position.

With Rhett Almond now gone after handling the majority of the punts last year, BYU will likely turn to one of three guys to fill in for him.

Danny Jones (RS JR)

Jones was the lone scholarship punter on the roster last season, but was beat out by Almond. Jones did see some action, however, with 8 punts in 6 games. The 6-foot-4, 245 pounds Aussie mainly used the rugby-style kick due to his background from Australia. Jones is the favorite to win the job, but he may have his scholarship pulled if he gets beat out.

Jake Oldroyd (SO)

Not only is he in a battle for the starting kicker, but Oldroyd was also in a competition during Spring to be BYU’s punter. Oldroyd didn’t punt at all during his freshman year, but he showed enough right off his mission to be in the punting mix. Jake has a lot of options as he could be both BYU’s primary kicker and punter, one or the other, or neither.

Ryan Rehkow (FR)

Rehkow was a member of the 2017 signing class that will be home from his mission in time to compete for the starting punter position in Fall Camp. Rehkow was the top rated kicker/punter coming out of high school in 2017, but Ed Lamb said that BYU will start him as a punter initially. Rehkow hit 52 and 57-yard field goals in high school, so he has the leg strength to be a contributor at kicker or punter at some point during his BYU career.

Bret Matthews

Matthews is a senior walk-on from Timpview High School that just joined the team in Spring. We don’t expect much from him, but we’ll list him here since he’s on the roster.