The Punting Competition Remains Open

It's Straw vs. McGhee for the starting punter spot.

WVU head coach Neal Brown and special team coordinator Jeff Koonz are waiting for a starting punter to emerge.

On roster, WVU holds Leighton Bechdel, Danny King, Kolton McGhee, Oliver Straw, and Ronan Swope.

Leighton Bechdel / Julia Mellett - Sports Illustrated: FanNation - Mountaineers Now

Danny King / Julia Mellett - Sports Illustrated: FanNation - Mountaineers Now

Kolton McGhee / Caleb Saunders - WVU Football

Oliver Straw / Julia Mellett - Sports Illustrated: FanNation - Mountaineers Now

Ronan Swope / Julia Mellett - Sports Illustrated: FanNation - Mountaineers Now

As it stands, the starting punter position is a battle between McGhee, a redshirt junior, and Oliver Straw, an Australian punter in his first season with the Mountaineers.

"That's a battle," Brown said. "Kolton McGhee and Oliver Straw. We're going to let that play out. That may play out through what is really our last full-speed practice on Monday."

McGhee redshirted his freshman year and saw four games-worth of punt time in 2020; he averaged 39.7 yards per punt over nine punts with a long of 50 yards. 

When he returned last season, McGhee was used exclusively on kick-offs; against Long Island and Minnesota, he nailed five kicks a total of 314 yards and registered four touchbacks.

Straw, a Melbourne, AUS and Hoboken, NJ native, is a freshman in 2022. That's not a knock on his experience though. He can punt both spiral and rugby-style and is an ambidextrous kicker. He played a mixture of defensive end and tight end in high school, but Straw has been well-trained specifically on special teams with Prokick Australia.

"Both have similar skillsets, but obviously Ollie has probably done more on the move, but Kolton can do the same movements, so they're going back and forth," Koonz said. "Both have shown the ability to push the ball down the field with great hang time. We've probably had more consistent hang time than we've probably had in the past from both of them, so we're excited about that."

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