Oct. 30, 2008

Sakoda Receives National Football Foundation Award

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SALT LAKE CITY - For the third-straight season, Utah All-America punter/kicker Louie Sakoda has been named as a top 10 semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award, which identifies the nation's top Football Bowl Subdivision punter.

Sakoda is the only three-time semifinalist in the field. He is one of three punters on the list for the second straight year, along with Cincinnati's Kevin Huber and Ohio State's A.J. Trapasso.

Sakoda, a 2007 first-team All-America punter by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and CBSSports.com, earned second-team honors from SI.com. A four-year starter, Sakoda is a two-time Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and was the preseason media pick to repeat in 2008.

This season--his fourth as Utah's starting punter--Sakoda is averaging 43.0 yards per punt, even while placing nearly 40% of his punts (13-of-33) inside the 20-yard line. He has had nine of 33 punts of 50 yards or longer, including a career-long 81-yard punt.

Ray Guy finalists include Sakoda (Utah), Huber (Cincinnati), Trapasso (Ohio State), Bryan Anger (California), Derek Epperson (Baylor), Ryan Donahue (Iowa), Matt Fodge (Oklahoma State), Chas Henry (Florida), Pa McAfee (West Virginia) and Zoltan Meskko (Michigan).

A national voting body of Football Bowl Subdivision coaches, sports information directors, national media, and former Ray Guy Award winners will decide the three award finalists, and ultimately the winner of this year's award. The winner will be announced live on ESPN during the ESPNU - Home Depot College Football Awards show, Thursday, December 11, 2008. The winner will be honored again at the Greater Augusta Sports Award Gala in early 2009.

Sakoda is also a candidate for the Lou Groza award as the nation's outstanding placekicker and was recently selected as the Midseason All-America placekicker by CBSSports.com, The Sporting News and Rivals.com. He ranks among the national leaders in field goal percentage (15-of-17, 88.2%) and is tied for third in the country in kick scoring points (80).

An outstanding student, Sakoda is a Draddy Trophy finalist and a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete (which came with an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship). He is also a top-10 finalist for the Lowe's Senior Class Award, was a Lou Groza `Star of the Week' on Sept. 1 for his performance against Michigan, and has been named the Mountain West Conference Special Teams Player of the Week three times this season.