Georgia Southern punter Anthony Beck earns national weekly honor

Georgia Southern's Anthony Beck II of Guyton is the Ray Guy Award's Punter of the Week for his performance in a 21-14 loss to Georgia State last Saturday in Statesboro.

The redshirt junior, a South Effingham High School graduate, averaged a career-best 49.25 yards for one game on four punts (197 yards), including three within the opponent's 20 and no touchbacks.

More GS football: Who's the next football coach at Georgia Southern? We submit a list of possible candidates

With the Eagles trailing 14-7 with about 4 and half minutes left in regulation, Beck bombed a 63-yarder to the State 9. The Southern defense forced a three-and-out and the Eagles got the ball back at the Panthers' 42 with 3:04 remaining. The Eagles tied with the game at 14 with 1:39 left, but the Panthers scored with 26 seconds remaining to win the game.

"Analytics was saying we need to go for it," Georgia Southern interim head coach Kevin Whitley said Monday of the offense's fourth-and-6 at its 28-yard line. "I'm like, no sir. So we punted it and (Beck) made me look good. That great punt, we were able to get the ball back around midfield and take it in to score. So it worked out in our behalf.

"He's having a heck of a season, been a really clutch guy for us the last couple of years that I've been here, and the sky's the limit for him."

This season, Beck has punted 36 times for 1,636 yards, a 45.4 averge, a long of 63, and 10 punts of 50 or more yards, with one touchback, 15 fair catches and 15 inside the 20. He entered the season with 26 games from 2019-20 with 119 punts, 5,021 yards, a 42.2 average and a long of 74 yards.

The 2021 Ray Guy Award, which honors the nation’s top collegiate punter, is organized through the Augusta Sports Council. Beck also was one of "Ray's 8" finalists for weekly honors in Week 3 and Week 7. Beck was one of 50 candidates on the award's preseason watch list.

Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Email him at ndominitz@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia Southern punter Anthony Beck of Guyton weekly Ray Guy Award