Zach Sinor Unfazed About Being A Ray Guy Finalist, Shares How He Got To OSU

One of Oklahoma State’s best players is a guy you may not have heard much about — punter Zach Sinor. The sophomore punter from Castroville, Texas is ranked No. 31 in the NCAA in yards per punt at 43.0. More importantly he’s pinned the other team inside their own 20 yard line 26 times in 2016, tied for No. 3 in the nation. He’s also somehow only had one touchback.

He’s also up as a finalist for the Ray Guy award, given to the nation’s best punter. The ‘Seisman’, if you will. Here’s the list of finalists for the 2016 Ray Guy Award.

• Austin Barnes (Jr.), Eastern Michigan University
• Nicholas Conte (Sr.), University of Virginia
• Steven Coutts (So.), University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• Joseph Davidson (Jr.), Bowling Green State University
• Michael Dickson (So.), University of Texas
• Hayden Hunt (Sr.), Colorado State University
• Cameron Johnston (Sr.), Ohio State University
• Zach Sinor (So.), Oklahoma State University
• Johnny Townsend (Jr.), University of Florida
• Mitch Wishnowsky (So.), University of Utah

Sinor didn’t seem too worried about winning the award when asked about it at the on Monday.

“I don’t really look into that stuff,” said Sinor. “Yeah, the awards will come, but my job is to pin them back and help the defense out the best I can.”

He actually attended several Ray Guy camps growing up which is pretty funny.

“I watched his film,” said Sinor of the Ray Guy camps. He gives you a little disc to watch. A lot of drops, directional punting, he really broke it down which helped me a lot.

“As a freshman [in high school] I was a QB and a defensive tackle, a little odd. But my sophomore year I was kicking the ball around one day, and they said you’re the punter. Then I was on JV as the punter, and I hit a 45- 50-yard punt, so then they said you’re on varsity.

“So after that I averaged like 39 my sophomore year on varsity. So after that I went to a Ray Guy camp, and they said ‘you have a pretty big leg. You can probably kick in college.’ So I kept working at it and now I’m here.”

“During spring ball, whenever that was, I saw him throwing it around one day and he throws it pretty good,” said head coach Mike Gundy of his former QB-turned-punter. “If we were smart, we’d probably have a fake punt with him throwing the ball. But, it’s kind of like with James Castleman – the season’s not over yet.”

The punter is pretty much the least glamorous position on the field, but Sinor has been huge for Oklahoma State in several close games this year — in the Iowa State game, the Tech game this last weekend, Sinor flipped the field in some big spots.

“I just know where we’re at in the field at all times, so if we’re inside the 45-yard line, I’ll go the net and do some pooch punts and if we’re outside of that I’ll just work on regular punts,” added Sinor.

An extra 10-15 yards can be enormous for Glenn Spencer and his defense especially when Sinor never kicks it into the end zone.