Johnston B1G special teams player of the week – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 28, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Cameron Johnston, Ohio State’s junior punter from the Australian coastal city of Geelong, has been named the Big Ten Conference’s special team’s player of the week for his effort’s in the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes’ 38-12 victory over Western Michigan Saturday at Ohio Stadium.
Johnston, in winning his second Big Ten weekly award (the first came in 2013 as a freshman), repeatedly put Western Michigan’s offense in a tough position by averaging 51.5 yards off four punts. Three of his punts were downed inside the 20 and two of those were inside the 10 (at the 1 and 8 yard lines; his other I20 was downed at the 13). The Buckeyes gave up zero punt return yards on the day for a fine 51.5 net average per punt.
So far this season Johnston, who is on the watch list for the Ray Guy award as the nation’s outstanding punter, is averaging 47.4 yards per punt to rank ninth nationally. Ohio State has allowed just eight punt return yards and sits 12th nationally with a net punting average of 42.5 yards.
Johnston, a former Australian Rules Football player who came out of the Melbourne-based punter/kicker training ground Prokick Australia, now has 64 punts downed I20 for his career, a mark that is second in Ohio State history to A.J. Trapasso, who had 78 from 2005-08. He has dropped 32 punts inside the 10.
