MICHAEL PODOBNIK FINISHES 2007 SEASON AS NCAA DIVISION II INDIVIDUAL PUNTING STATISTICAL CHAMPION

        RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas – Arkansas Tech Wonder Boy All-America punter Michael Podobnik finished the recently completed football season as the NCAA Division II individual punting champion as he averaged 45.2 yards per punt this past season for the Wonder Boys.

Podobnik, who has already been named an AP Little All-America, a Daktronics Division II All-American and an AFCA Division II Coaches’ All-American selection this season, becomes the first Tech football player to finish the season as an individual NCAA Division II statistic champion since Rodney Woodruff took home the individual punt return title in 2000. Woodruff finished the 2000 season averaging 25.4 yards per punt return.

In addition, Podobnik becomes the first Gulf South Conference punter to win the NCAA’s individual punting title since Henderson State’s Chris Carter earned the honor with his 43.5 yard average in 1993.

On the season, Podobnik, a native of Frankfort, Ill., led the GSC with a 45.2 yard average per punt. In 10 games, he punted 43 times for 1,945 yards and had seven touchbacks and downed eight punts inside the 20-yard line. In addition, he had 13 punts over 50 yards, including a season-best 75-yard punt in the fourth quarter of Tech’s season opener at Northeastern State. Podobnik’s 45.2 yard average set a new single-season Tech and GSC mark. The previous Tech mark of 42.0 yards was set in 2003 by Tommy Edwards, while the old GSC mark of 43.5 yards was set in 1982 by Jacksonville State’s Greg Lowery. On the season, Podobnik was named the GSC Special Teams Player of the Week three times, the D2Football.com National Special Teams Player of the Week following the Harding game on Nov. 3 and was also a First-Team All-GSC and an First-Team Daktronics All-Southeast Region honoree. Against Harding, Podobnik averaged 52.5 yards on his four punts, which set a new Tech single-game record for punting average (51.0 was the previous record) and placed two punts inside the 20-yard line and boomed a 63-yard punt in the fourth quarter.

Overall this season, Podobnik finished eighth in punting among punters on all NCAA playing levels. The overall NCAA punting leader is Cincinnati’s Kevin Huber, who has a 46.9 yard average heading into his team’s Papajohn’s.com Bowl game match-up on Dec. 22 with Southern Mississippi. The NCAA FCS (Football Championship Series) punting champion is Texas State’s Chris MacDonald, who averaged 45.9 yards per punt, while the NCAA Division III punting champion was Occidental College’s Alex Groh, who finished the season also averaging 45.9 yards per punt. MacDonald and Groh, like Podobnik, were named AFCA All-Americans in their respective divisions.

In addition to Podobnik, junior receiver Tracey Stiger (Russellville, Ark.) finished the 2007 season ranked 19th in NCAA Division II in pass receptions per game (6.1), 22nd in punt returns (11.9 yards/return) and 29th in all-purpose yards (144.1 per game). Other Wonder Boy that finished in the Top 30 of the final D-II national statistics was junior defensive back Tito Jose (San Diego, Calif.). Jose finished the season ranked 25th in interceptions (0.5 per game) and 39th in forced fumbles (0.3 per game).

Meanwhile, in the final NCAA Division II national team statistics, Tech finished this past season ranked 13th in both punting (35.4 yards/punt) and punt returns (13.2 yards/return) and also finished 16th in sacks allowed (1.1 per game), 22nd in turnovers gained (30), 27th in both fumbles recovered (14.0) and interceptions gained (16.0) and 40th in scoring offense (31.7 points/game).

 -- Tech Athletics --