Punter Hunt will tell you what he thinks

fort collins» Colorado State senior punter Hayden Hunt, the runner-up in voting for the Ray Guy Award a year ago, is a political science major considering law school and a career as an attorney specializing in water rights issues.

“A couple of years ago, I started looking at Chapman University in L.A.,” he said this week. “Their dean appeared in front of the Supreme Court more than any other man in U.S. history. But lately, I haven’t been thinking that much about law school. I’ve been focusing on football more.”

That’s because if Hunt finishes strong, he’ll almost certainly get a look from an NFL team, and perhaps even be drafted.

Hunt averaged 46.0 yards per punt in 2015 and will take a 44.5-yard average into Saturday’s Border War against Wyoming at Hughes Stadium. Hunt has dropped nine of his 17 punts this season inside the opponent’s 20. That kind of selflessness is a counter for anyone trying to discount his average as boosted by high-altitude conditions. Hunt averaged 45.0 yards at Minnesota last week.

“Numbers are different, but I think I’m significantly a better punter this year than I was last year,” Hunt said. “I think if you watch my whole punting career, every year it gets better. Last year, I was really proud of it, but this year, I’m a lot more consistent and just overall better.”

Hunt’s father, Andrew, an accountant, meticulously keeps net-punting stats for Hayden and other programs and has gotten on his son in the past when he doesn’t rank high enough in net yardage. But he backed off a bit this year.

“He told me not to worry about the numbers as much,” Hayden said. “He said, ‘When it comes down to it, you need to become better as a punter.’ He’s more a baseball background, and he said that when you start focusing on the numbers, you strike out more. He just told me to keep hitting them like I’m hitting them and things will work out.”

Hunt’s additional duty is to provide light-hearted relief for the Rams, as the target of barbed teasing about being a punter. His teammates present a “Hang Time Tuesday” award each week to the punter with the best hang time at the day’s practice. It’s not much of a contest. Hunt is the only punter on the Rams’ roster..

“He’s locked in,” CSU coach Mike Bobo said of Hunt at practice. “But you hear him say stuff and he’s got a sense of humor. He’s serious about what our special teams do, not just punt, which I love. He can answer every question in there about kickoff, kickoff return, punt return — and he’s the punter. I like guys that have a personality and joke with the guys and are not afraid to call guys out. The problem is, he’s a punter and sometimes guys don’t take him serious.”

A former baseball star at Long Beach Polytechnic High, Hunt hoped to also handle the placekicking duties in college, but has settled for just punting. “I do miss putting points on the board directly,” he said. “Going back to poli sci, that’s soft money versus hard money, and I do miss putting hard points on the board,. compared to punting as soft points.”

As a fifth-year senior, he is close with the older defensive starters. “I have a lot of fun with them, messing with them,” he said. “I’ll come off the field and say, ‘I did my job. I hit a 50-yard fair catch and jogged off the field.’ ”