A recent list of the top 100 punters of all time hit social media. Does it prove that Michigan State football is ‘Punter U’?
When talking about college football, there are always discussions on which team produces the best position players. Some could argue that Iowa is ‘TEU’ as they have produced the most tight ends to the NFL in recent years. There is one discussion that does not typically happen and that is, who produces the best punters in college football? This question was answered by Big Game Boomer on twitter and the answer is: Michigan State football.
On this account’s top 100 list, there is no school that has more punters than Michigan State. It has five punters on the list: Brandon Fields, Jake Hartbarger, Mike Sadler, Aaron Bates and the actual (still salty about it) Ray Guy Award winner Bryce Baringer. These five punters during their college years were either the best or the second best in the country.
While this proves that Michigan State is Punter U, there are problems with this list.
The problems start with No. 73: Bryce Baringer. Not only did Baringer get disrespected by not winning the Ray Guy Award, him being the lowest rated punter at Michigan State is just wrong. While he doesn’t have the Ray Guy Award, he holds records at Michigan State and you could argue that he kept Michigan State in games because of his ability to pin other teams deep into their zone. He not only was the best punter in college but he was the first punter to get drafted.
Bryce deserves to be a top punter in Michigan State history.
The next punter is Aaron Bates at No. 64. I think this is a pretty good spot for him. While he was a really good punter, he to me was not in the top three for Michigan State. Mike Sadler is next at No. 49 and a top-three Michigan State punter in this list. I think Mike being the third-best punter in Michigan State is absolutely fair. You could even argue that he’s a top-two punter depending on what you value.
No. 2 for Michigan State on this list is Jake Hartbarger who came in at No. 43 on the list. While Hartbarger again was a great punter, I do think Bryce, Mike and the next punter were all a little better.
The last and highest ranked punter on this list is Brandon Fields at No. 38. Fields had a nine-year NFL career and his time got overshadowed at Michigan State because he was on some bad Michigan State football teams.
With all this being said, what did we learn about Michigan State and punters?
We learned a few things. We learned that the disrespect of Baringer has continued. The disrespect has continued even after the season but professional teams like the New England Patriots realize how good he is. The other main thing that we learned by this article and the Big Game Boomer top 100 list is that Michigan State provides the most amount of the greatest punters in college football history, which is the reason why Michigan State is actually Punter U.
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