The Next Great Family of Punters?

On September 17th, against the Abilene Cristian University Wildcats, a redshirt freshman punter by the name of Jack Stonehouse took the field for the University of Missouri for the first time in his collegiate career, replacing senior placekicker Sean Koetting after what can be said as some very bad previous punts in the game. Stonehouse took his chance in stride and has not looked back since. In this article, I will be covering the Stonehouse family of punters and another family of punters that the Stonehouses are starting to remind me of that everyone knows about.

To start things out, let's go over Jack Stonehouse’s punting statistics. In 10 games played this season he has 47 punts for 1,988 yards, averaging 42.3 yards per punt and his longest of the season so far is 68 yards. Overall, not too bad for the first season of his collegiate career! Hopefully, we don’t have to see him put very much in whatever bowl game The University of Missouri is selected to play in!

Next, what got me thinking about making this article was when I and Brock went to the Denver Broncos vs Tennessee Titans game on Tennessee Takeover Weekend, I noticed that the punter for the Tennessee Titans was named Ryan Stonehouse. After further searching, Ryan is the older cousin of Jack Stonehouse. Ryan played for Colorado State from 2017-2021, in which during his term there he received the Sporting News Second Team All-American (2021), 3x First Team All-Mountain West (2018-2020), and Second Team All-Mountain West (2021). Throughout his collegiate career, he punted 244 times for a total of 11,656 yards. He broke the NCAA FBS record for the highest career average yards per punt with his 47.8-yard average, which was previously held by Florida punter Johnny Townsend with a 46.2 average. He also holds the Mountain West Conference's highest career average yards per punt record, previously held by BYU punter Matt Payne (45.4; 2001–04). After his collegiate career, he went undrafted in the NFL draft until he was signed as a free agent by the Tennessee Titans this May. From there he battled against longtime Titans punter Brett Kern (who had been with the Titans since 2009). In what seemed like a bit of a shock, Ryan ended up beating Brett and winning the starting job of Punter for the Tennessee Titans. As a rookie in the NFL, Ryan’s current stats are 59 punts for 3,132 yards, averaging 53.1 yards per punt with a long of 74 yards (an absolute bomb) and 23 punts downed inside of the 20-yard line.

Now what’s funny is that the family tree keeps on going. Both Jack and Ryan’s fathers John and Paul were punters as well. (John and Paul being brothers making Jack and Ryan cousins). Jack’s father John and Ryan’s Father Paul both received full-ride scholarships to play football in college as punters and started all 4 years they were at their respected universities. (John at USC and Paul at Stanford). Paul Stonehouse was named an All-American, Kicker of the Eighties, and a three-time Academic All-Pac 10 Punter at Stanford. John Stonehouse was also named to the All-American Team and a Two Time All-Pac 10 Punter at USC. He finished his career at USC ranked 8th in the nation. Out of the two brothers, John was signed by the New York Giants in 1996 and Paul went unsigned.

That is currently all for the Stonehouse family, we will now investigate another dynasty family of punters that many of us already know about, the Colquitts.

We all know of Britton and Dustin Colquitt but let's dig more into the Colquitt family before covering them. First off, the patriarch of the Colquitt punting dynasty was Lester Colquitt (Britton and Dustin’s grandfather). Lester was a standout high school punter in Knoxville, Tennessee before a military commitment kept him from accepting a scholarship offer to the University of Alabama to punt. After returning from military service, he didn't pursue playing again, instead returning home and becoming a police officer. Next up is Joseph Craig Colquitt, Britton and Dustin’s father. The University of Tennessee was so desperate for punting help in 1974 that a classified listing was placed in the Knoxville News-Sentinel promoting tryouts. Craig, who was working in a China shop department store two years removed from his own high school punting days, answered the advertisement. He ended up winning the job and became the first NFL punter in the family. In his 8-year tenure as an NFL punter, Craig played for the Pittsburgh Steelers (1978–1981, 1983–1984) and Indianapolis Colts (1987). He was drafted in the 3rd round by the Steelers in 1978. He was a member of two Super Bowl championship teams with the Steelers in 1978 and 1979 (Superbowl XIII and XIV). His NFL career statistics were that he punted 431 times for 17,795 yards making an average of 41.3 yards per punt. Craig was also inducted into the Greater Knoxville Hall of Fame on July 16, 2009. Craig’s brother Jimmy Colquitt, Britton and Dustin’s uncle, also punted for the University of Tennessee and went undrafted in 1985. After going undrafted, Jimmy was signed by the Seattle Seahawks and played in 2 games for them that year. While his NFL tenure was short, in those 2 games he punted a total of 12 times for 481 yards, averaging 40.1 yards per punt.

Now time to discuss Dustin and Britton Colquitt.

Dustin Colquitt was the punter at the University of Tennessee after accepting an athletic scholarship and played for coach Phillip Fulmer's Tennessee Volunteers football team from 2001 to 2004. As a junior in 2003, he was recognized as a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection, and a consensus first-team All-American. As a senior in 2004, he again earned first-team All-SEC honors. After his tenure in college, he was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2005 NFL draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. During the 2007 NFL season, he set the Kansas City Chiefs franchise record for the longest punt with an 81-yard punt. Colquitt had career highs during the 2009 NFL season in both punts and punting yards with 96 and 4,361, respectively. Dustin’s 4,361 punting yards were second to Jim Arnold's 4,397 during the 1984 NFL season. In 2010, he was voted the winner of the Ed Block Courage Award. In the 2012 season, he had a punting average of 46.8, the highest he has ever had in a season. From 2005 to 2012, Colquitt had 657 career punts with a 44.7-yard average. Dustin was named to his first Pro Bowl in 2012. On March 5, 2013, Colquitt signed a five-year contract extension worth $18.75 million, with $8.9 million guaranteed, making him the NFL's highest-paid punter. In 2016, he was named to his second Pro Bowl after fellow punter Pat McAfee declined to play due to an injury. During the 2017 NFL season, he became the Chiefs' all-time leader in both punts and punting yards passing Jerrel Wilson. During the 2019 season, Colquitt played in and won his first Super Bowl after the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31–20. Finally, Colquitt was released on April 28, 2020. In his 15 seasons with the Chiefs, he set multiple team records including being tied with fellow punter Jerrel Wilson for the longest-tenured player in franchise history. After being released, Dustin has jumped around teams and practice squads for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Atlanta Falcons, and Cleveland Browns and is currently still a free agent. As of current NFL stats, he has punted 1.198 times for 53,660 yards, averaging 44.8 yards per punt with a long of 81 yards and 483 punts that have been downed inside of the 20-yard line.

Britton Colquitt became the new punter for the University of Tennessee after his older brother Dustin had graduated. During 2005, 2006, and 2007 seasons, he was the Volunteers' first-team punter, and he earned consensus first-team All-SEC honors in 2006 and second-team All-SEC honors in 2007. Also, while at the University of Tennessee, Britton had a well-publicized saga with alcohol problems. He was first suspended from the University of Tennessee football team in March 2004 after three alcohol-related arrests, despite having only arrived on campus in 2003. In his junior season, he was suspended for the first five games of the season and had his scholarship stripped after being arrested on charges of DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. After his collegiate playing time at the University of Tennessee, he went undrafted. He did eventually get signed to play in the NFL though. His best years by far were the 6 seasons he spent with the Denver Broncos from 2009-2015. On September 12, 2010, in the season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Britton made his NFL debut and had four punts for 172 net yards (43-yard average). In the 2011 season, he accumulated 4,783 yards, enough for fifth all-time for single-season punting yards. In the 2013-14 NFL season the Broncos reached Super Bowl XLVIII, which they lost to the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 43–8. In the loss, he had two punts for 60 net yards. On February 7, 2016, Colquitt was part of the Broncos team that won Super Bowl 50. In the game, the Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers by a score of 24–10, giving Colquitt his first Super Bowl victory. On August 30, 2016, Colquitt was released by the Broncos due to not accepting a pay cut. As of 2017's NFL off-season, Colquitt held at least 11 Broncos franchise records, including:

- Punts: playoffs (48), playoff season (23 in 2015), playoff game (9 on 2016-01-24 NWE)

- Punt Yards: season (4,783 in 2011), playoffs (2,104), playoff season (1,072 in 2015), playoff game (423 on 2016-01-24 NWE)

- Yards / Punt: career (45.17), season (47.36 in 2011), game (55.83 on 2011-09-18 CIN), playoff season (48.8 in 2012)

Britton also jumped around teams and practice squads for the Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, and Minnesota Vikings. He is currently a free agent, but as of current NFL stats, he has punted 834 times for 37,903 yards, averaging 45.5 yards per punt and a long of 79 yards with 262 punts being downed inside the 20-yard line.

It is pretty cool that both brothers and their dad won super bowl rings and that all the punters from the Colquitt family that played in college went to the University of Tennessee to Punt.

Well, that concludes this monster of a piece on the up-and-coming punting Stonehouse family and a little history on the punting Dynasty that is the Colquitt family. I hope you all enjoyed it!