Oscar Chapman proving to be a ‘weapon’ for Auburn on special teams - AL.com

Oscar Chapman set out one big goal for himself this season: Win the Ray Guy Award.

Approaching the midway point of the schedule, Auburn's junior punter has done well to make his case while propping up an Auburn punt unit that has been among the best in the nation this year.

"Punters, you know, all they do is catch and kick it a couple times a game," Chapman said. "But it's a lot of preparation because I kick the ball maybe four times in a game; if one of those is bad, then everyone looks at you. But if I do my job right, no one really notices. So, it's one of those — work really hard behind the scenes and just get the job done so you know there's not a lot on you outside of that."

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Chapman, in his third season after arriving from Australia, is currently 32nd among FBS punters in average at 44.1 yards per punt, which is just shy of his career-best average as a sophomore last season. More importantly, though, he has been precise and methodical with his approach and execution on special teams.

Thanks in large part to Chapman's hangtime and ball placement, Auburn leads the SEC and is sixth nationally in net punting (44.11 yards per attempt) and is tops in the league and fifth nationally in punt return defense. Of Chapman's 19 punts this season, only two have been returned; Missouri was responsible for both of those attempts in the teams' SEC opener, totaling minus-1 yard between the two tries.

"It goes back to me trying to get good hangtime, good distance and putting the ball where coach wants me to," Chapman said. "Just our gunners and team are working really hard on punts, pushing blokes down, getting around them and working downfield, putting pressure on the returner so he doesn't want to catch it on me."

Chapman has really hit his stride the last two weeks since the start of SEC play, when Auburn has had to lean on him more than its offense would like to admit.

Through the first three games of the season—against Mercer, San Jose State and Penn State—Chapman averaged just 40.7 yards on seven punts. His first punt of the season against Mercer went for just 29 yards, though it came on a short field (Auburn was at the Mercer 40-yard line) and he pinned the Bears at their own 11-yard line early in the second quarter.

Since the start of SEC play, though, Chapman has been called upon 12 times in two games. The Australian specialist has stepped up, averaging 46 yards per punt. That's tops among SEC punters and 13th nationally among all punters in conference play this year.

He averaged 45.9 yards per punt on eight attempts against Missouri, including a season-long 61-yarder during Auburn's 17-14 overtime win, which included six straight second-half possessions ending in a punt. Three of those eight punts were downed inside the Missouri 20-yard line. Last weekend against LSU, Chapman averaged 46.2 yards on four punts, again placing three of them inside the 20-yard line, with one downed at the LSU 10-yard line.

For his efforts against Missouri and LSU, Chapman was named to the Ray Guy Award's weekly Ray's 8, which recognizes the top-eight punter performances in the country each week during the season.

"Been really, really happy," Chapman said. "We had a slow start — well, I did. We had a few short ones; we didn't really punt too much. Last couple games we had a few more…. It's really good; just trying to keep the average up there and have good hangtime and distance for the next how many games we've got left. Good to keep that form going into it."

Chapman has continued to improve throughout his time on the Plains, and a piece of advice he received from fellow Australian and former Auburn punter Arryn Siposs prior to the 2020 season has stuck with him throughout his career with the Tigers: Practice hard, and don't overthink things when the lights come on.

"Just catch the ball and kick it; everything will come to you," Chapman said. "Everything's kind of second nature — as soon as that ball's snapped at me, just kind of forget everything and just do your job. I took that with me and work really hard during the week with my fundamentals, and then game time, just forget it all and just do it. That's helped me so far."

Chapman has proven to be one of the more consistent pieces to the puzzle for Auburn this season, and with how the offense has struggled—particularly in the second half of games—his reliability and precision in the punt game could prove critical in helping Auburn gain a field position advantage. That, in turn, could help put the offense in a better position to succeed after halftime against its upcoming opponents.

Chapman plans to keep doing his part in helping Auburn win the field position battle, and if he keeps up his current pace, he figures to be in the discussion for the Ray Guy Award as the season wears on.

"He's a weapon," Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. "Oscar's a guy that — we've talked about it — I really do, I think he's the best if not one of the best in the country."

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.