Grant Carlson Named ACC Specialist of the Week
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Staff Writer
Grant Carlson is quietly having a career year.
The graduate Boston College punter received ACC Specialist of the Week honors Monday after averaging 51.4 yards per punt at Temple, with a long of 62 yards.
It marks the second week in a row that an Eagle is the ACC Specialist of the Week. Last time around, running back Travis Levy was the recipient of the conference accolade.
Three of Carlson's five punts Saturday traveled 50 or more yards, and two of them landed inside the Temple 20-yard line.
BC's punt coverage team was on its A-game, too. The group held Temple wide receiver Jadan Blue to five yards per punt return.
Carlson is tied for first in the ACC with five punts of 50-plus yards this year. And he's all alone atop the league with a punt average of 47.8 yards.
Two of the last three years, Carlson ranked in the bottom three of qualifying ACC punters in punt average. The exception was 2019 when he finished ninth in the league with a 42.7 yards per punt average. He's improved significantly since then.
Not only in distance but in hang time as well. For the fourth straight year, Carlson is bettering his hang time, according to Pro Football Focus. The sixth-year punter is averaging 4.01 seconds of hang time per punt, 0.16 seconds longer than his boots in 2020.
Carlson was part of a special teams performance at Temple that head coach Jeff Hafley raved about Sunday.
“We need to give Coach [Matt] Thurin a ton of credit,” Hafley said. “I mean our special teams right now has gotta be playing as well as anybody in the country.”
