Pitt Adds JUCO Punter from the Transfer Portal

Dowd averaged 36.8 yards per punt (which ranked second in the KJCCC) on 35 punts. He pinned opponents inside the 20-yard line 12 times and booted his longest football 66 yards.

He is rated as a 4.5-star Kohl’s punter, as the 13th-ranked transfer punter, and he earned All-KJCCC honors last season.

Punting was, yet again, a disaster for the Panthers in 2023. Junko beat out Elon transfer Jeff Yurk, who re-entered the portal soon after, for the starting job in 2023 and was placed on scholarship before the season. But it wasn’t an easy season for Junko.

Junko averaged 41.6 yards per punt in 2023, but his inconsistency hurt the Panthers in more than one game last season. His blocked punts and shanked punts at key times were disastrous last season.

Caleb Guess is the only other punter on the roster, and he hasn’t punted since an ill-fated stint in 2022 — averaging 35.3 yards per punt on 12 tries. He’s served as the Panthers’ placeholder the last couple of seasons, but Dowd may work his way into holding duties, too.

Pitt has already revamped how the special teams unit works, with UConn transfer Nilay Upadhyayula arriving as the new long snapper and Eastern Michigan defensive back Josh McCarty arriving as a special teams ace. It remains to be seen what happens at punter, but it seems likely that Dowd will have a chance to compete for a starting spot in 2024.

Bronowski ran a nationally-renowned special teams unit at Miami (Oh.), and he’s working to do the same at Pitt.