NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Two Vanderbilt football student-athletes were named All-SEC on Tuesday. Punter Matthew Hayball and long snapper Wesley Schelling earned the honor from a vote of the league’s coaches.
Hayball was named first-team punter, while Schelling was the long snapper on the second team. Hayball is the first Vanderbilt punter to earn first-team All-SEC honors since Bill Marinangel in 1996. Schelling becomes Vandy’s first All-SEC selection in consecutive seasons since Zach Cunningham in 2015-16. Schelling is the only specialist in Vanderbilt history to earn All-SEC honors in multiple seasons. It marks Vanderbilt’s first season with multiple All-SEC selections since 2016 (Zach Cunningham, Will Holden and Ralph Webb).
Hayball is a finalist for the Ray Guy Award and has ranked among the nation’s top punters in multiple categories this season. At the conclusion of the regular season, he currently ranks seventh in net punting (43.1), sixth in average punt (47.6), is one of 14 punters in the nation with a long of 71 yards or more and ranks second in Pro Football Focus Punting Grade (88.8).
His average of 47.6 yards per punt this year is the second-best single-season average in school history, trailing only Ricky Anderson’s clip of 48.2 yards per punt in 1984. Coupled with his average of 45.4 yards per punt in 2022, Hayball owns two of the top five seasons in school history.
The graduate student was named midseason All-America by the Associated Press, Pro Football Focus and College Football Network after being selected third-team preseason All-SEC by the league’s coaches.
He was named the Ray Guy Award Punter of the Week following the Kentucky game after his seven punts went for an average of 50.3 yards. It was the highest single-game punting average for a Commodore since 1982, trailing only Jim Arnold’s 53.1 yards per punt against North Carolina in the Vandy record books.
Combined with his tenure at Florida Atlantic, Hayball has appeared in 59 games, punting 289 times for 13,073 yards. At the conclusion of the regular season, he is the only active punter across all divisions of NCAA football (FBS, FCS, D-II, D-III) to have eclipsed 13,000 career yards. His career average is 45.2 yards per punt and he has pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard-line on 108 occasions.
In two seasons at Vanderbilt, Hayball has punted 115 times for a total of 5,347 yards, pinning opponents inside the 20 on 36.5 percent of his punts. With a Vanderbilt career average of 46.5 per punt, Hayball boasts the best career punting average in school history.
Schelling has been selected All-SEC for the second consecutive year after earning first-team honors a season ago. Schelling snapped 100 times this season, bringing his career total to 323 snaps over four seasons at Vanderbilt. The Nashville native was a semifinalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award this season and was a Shrine Bowl 1000 player in the preseason.
