2008 Senior Day Tribute: Britton Colquitt

Britton Colquitt

Back in 2006, a bunch of us bloggers voted weekly in something we called the Maxwell Pundit, a sort of blogger's Player of the Year Award. On September 26 of that year, I risked getting kicked (heh!) out of the voting pool on my first attempt by casting a vote for a punter:

As I said earlier this week, the Colquitts, if they were horses, would be owned by some Saudi Arabian prince.  (For non-Tennessee fans, the Colquitt punting legacy began with Craig (1975-1977), and continued with Jimmy (1981-1984), and Dustin (2001-2004).  The yearling Britton's first punt this past week against Marshall was for a solid 46 yards, and it was downed at the Marshall eight yard line.  His second was 63 yards, and it, too, was downed at the Marshall eight.  Britton's third effort was the best of the night: a 59 yard punt that was downed at the Marshall two yard line.  Three punts for an average of 56 yards per.  All inside the ten, one inside the five.  None of them were returned.

That was actually the rule and not the exception for the Colquitts generally and Britton specifically. After a redshirt season in 2004, Britton started 11 games in 2005, 12 in 2006, and 13 in 2007. In 2005, he punted 59 times, averaged 41.2 yards per punt, and had 19 of them downed inside the opponent's 20-yard line. Against South Carolina that year, he punted six times, with four of them downed inside the 20 and three (half!) downed inside the five. Against Notre Dame, he nailed a 64-yarder.

Just warming up, was Britton. In 2006, he finished second in the SEC and seventh nationally with a 44.9 yard average, which also happened to be the fourth best mark in school history. In the aforementioned Marshall game, Britton averaged 56 yards per punt, including a 63-yarder. Against the Gamecocks, he again pinned them inside their own 20 three times. He did the same to the LSU Tigers while averaging 47.8 yards per punt.

Against Georgia in 2007, Britton punted six times for a 42-yard average, with three downed inside the 20. He also recorded Tennessee's first two touchbacks of the season as a kickoff dude.

And then, oh, the horror. Britton missed the game against Southern Miss due to a quadricep injury thereby snapping a streak of 71 consecutive games in which a Colquitt was the starting punter. Oh, well, there was always South Carolina, which Colquitt once again victimized by placing four of six punts inside their own 20.

After serving a five-game suspension to open the 2008 season, Colquitt picked up right where he left off. So far this season, he's punted 38 times for an average of 43.2 yards. He's had ten go over 50 yards, including one 71-yarder, and placed 11 inside the opponent's 20.

What can you say? Dude can kick. It's in the genes.

That last punt was not only downed inside the five. It went for 71 yards. And here's a bonus geometry lesson for you: