Kentucky Football: Grading Stoops, the players what letter do they get?

Let’s be honest, this is mostly about Max Duffy. Why wouldn’t it be?

Never in a million years would Kentucky fans think that a punter would be one of the most popular players on the football team, let alone an Australian one. Enter, Max Duffy possibly the most interesting man in the world. Duffy has been nothing short of spectacular since putting on the blue and white in 2018.

The former Australian Rules Football player was awarded the Ray Guy Award last season as well being a first-team All-American selection… as a 26-year-old. I’ve scoured the internet so I don’t know if they even keep a record of the age of All-Americans, but I’m going out on a limb and saying he’s got to be the oldest to ever receive either honor.

Duffy was the cornerstone of another exquisite special teams season for Kentucky, Duffy finished 13th in the country averaging 45.1 yards per punt.  As a sophomore, he averaged 45 yards per punt with a long of 67 yards.

Not only can Duffy kick the life out of a football, but we’ve also seen him make his share of defenders look absolutely idiotic with his elusive moves. Just ask NC State.

Enough about Duffy, Matt Ruffolo turned in a stellar season kicking the ball through the uprights. More importantly, Ruffolo panned out to be a very reliable kicker when Kentucky fans were starting to lose faith any time the field goal unit came on the field.

Ruffolo made 12 out of 14 field goals, and 22 out of 23 extra points. Ruffolo’s only 2 misses came from 40-49 yards. Ruffolo’s 85.7% was good enough to land him 25th in the country in field goal percentage.

Ruffolo graduated so now it would seem that Chance Poore would be the early replacement, but he had been relegated to kickoffs. Poore struggled in 2019 after coming in highly touted and as the 13th rated kicker in the nation in high school.

Kentucky is bringing in another Aussi player turned punter in Wilson Berry. Kentucky had pretty good luck with the first one, and here’s hoping Duffy’s replacement won’t miss a beat. He is also the brother to Pittsburgh Steeler punter Jordan Berry who kicked in college at Eastern Kentucky.

As far as next season I don’t anticipate Kentucky seeing any drop on the special teams front, should be business as usual with more stellar play and consistency.