“I want to win the Ray Guy,” Washington punter Hunter Green said this Spring. “That’s a big shout, but I believe I have the potential.” The Ray Guy Award is the individual award annually presented to the nation’s best punter. But in his eyes, it’s more than an individual accomplishment, and being in that conversation would mean the Husky special teams unit is among the best in the country.
“I feel like that’s a personal goal and I don’t want to just be focused on myself,” Green continued. “But if I’m pinning the [opposing] team back, if I’m smoking the ball, hitting bombs, putting the other team in bad position, [that] puts our team in an even better position.” Green certainly brings the tools to Montlake to be among the top punters in the Big Ten, and maybe in the nation. His production this fall can go a long way in turning Washington into a postseason contender.
Hunter Green Eyes Ray Guy
Metrics and Field Position
Green was a second-team all Mountain West punter a year ago at San Diego State. He punted for 2,959 yards on 63 attempts with a net yardage of 41.3 yards per kick. The net yardage ranked inside the top 30 in college football, and his gross yardage was top 10 nationally (46.8 yards per kick). Green’s ability to pin opponents deep was among the best in the country. He downed 30 of his 63 punts inside the 20-yard line, which ranked fourth nationally.
“[It’s] massively important,” special teams coordinator Chris Petrilli said this Spring, when asked about field position on punt team. “It’s not always the big 65-yard, super great-looking punt. Sometimes it’s, you’re on the dang 42, and you’re up, and you gotta punt it, you gotta be able to place it down [inside the 20].”
In order to create those advantageous field-position flips, hang time becomes important. Pooch kicks and directional kicking can help the coverage team get in position to down the football. And Petrilli sees that capability within Green. “The pooch punting area is where you can really separate yourself. Not just with net punt, but really forcing teams into backed-up situations.”
On average, Green’s hangtime was 4.12 seconds in 2025. He had five games with an average hangtime of at least 4.45 seconds. Hangtime is situational, but those numbers are a good indication of his ability to situationally put his coverage unit in the best position to limit return yards. And at San Diego State last year, Green’s coverage unit allowed just 8.2 yards per return. That metric translated into punts pinned inside the 20, where Green rated in the top four nationally.
Spring Ball Flashes
During Spring practice at Washington, Green showed flashes of this kind of production. He punted six times in the team’s second scrimmage in late April. Unofficially, he averaged a hangtime of 4.27 seconds. Green had a 62-yard kick and a pair of 55-yard punts in that batch.
In the Spring game, Green had just one punt that came at the end of the first half, but it was a great kick. It netted 49 yards with a hangtime of 4.73 seconds and was fair-caught inside the 20 at the 18-yard line. Winning field position is crucial in Big Ten football, and Green knows that; it’s why he believes his goal of winning the Ray Guy is more than just an individual award.
“If I am in the running essentially for the Ray Guy Award, then we should be one of the more dominant special teams units in the country,” Green described. “People, when they’re playing Washington, know that they’re not going to get anything on punt return.”
