Scott Kovanda, a senior punter from Ball State, was one of this year’s finalists for the Ray Guy Award, an award presented to the top punter in all of college football. The 6-foot-2 and 209-pound special teamer is listed as the fifth best punter in the entire NFL Draft. Kovanda’s whirlwind season has seen him go from Ray Guy Finalist, to participant in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, to interviewing for the biggest role of his life at the NFL Combine.
Kovanda, who served as a Cardinals team captain in 2012, punted 44 times, pinning opponents inside the 20-yard line 236 times in his career. He helped Ball State rank fourth in the country in punt return defense, only allowing only 1 yard per return. Only six of Kovanda’s entire punts were returned in 2012. This season he punted for an average of 40.2, including six punts of 50 or more yards.
According to the Ballstatecardinals.com, Kovanda will be only the third Cardinal prospect to attend the draft, and the first since 2009. If Kovanda does manage to hear his name called in the draft, he’d be the third BSU punter and the first since 2005, when the Rams took Reggie Hodges in sixth round. The New York Giants had previously selected Brad Maynard in the third round in 1997.
When asked about his combine experience resembling a job interview, Kovanda told the reporters that it was “no different than walking into a bank for a job interview.” After meeting with all 32 Special Teams coaches, the Ball State specialist hopes that teams biggest takeaways will be his character and work ethic from college. “The biggest thing [the teams] will look at is your bad punts and how you recover from them.”
If blemishes are among the major talking points, Kovanda’s Combine performance should leave his critics relatively silent after strong performance with power and directional kicking. In fact, after going through what he considered to be the “most stressful things I’ll ever have to do,” Kovanda had an individual workout for the Philadelphia Eagles at Ball State University.
The process, Kovanda said, is similar to that of speed dating. Teams who are “sweet” on the Ball State product may find themselves landing an absolute game-changer. While special teams is an area that is not typically addressed in the NFL Draft, the landscape of the league is changing to a more aerial attack on the offensive side of the ball. With teams looking for the home-run pass, winning the battle of field position is always crucial. Scouts may point to his average as below average, but his hang time allows so few of his kicks to actually be returned. Teams would certainly love the ability to neutralize dynamic return men like Devin Hester and DeSean Jackson with a punter like Kovanda.
