BYU has been spoiled by its punters in recent years.
Ryan Rehkow became a program legend in Provo before breaking records with the Cincinnati Bengals, and Sam Vander Haar proved proficient at both pinning opponents inside their 20 and pulling off fakes to pick up first downs.
The Cougars have now turned to Fuller Shurtz to continue their recent tradition of punting excellence, and his early efforts have been more than encouraging. He’s averaging 48.1 yards per punt, with four of his seven attempts sailing for more than 50 yards, including a 53-yard boot this past weekend at Colorado State.
“Fuller’s done a really good job, he’s a student of the game,” BYU special teams coordinator Justin Ena said Monday on BYUtv. “He’s always learning, always asking, ‘Hey, what could I do better?’ And so it’s kind of fun for him to take those steps, and again, he’s always had that fantastic leg.”
While Shurtz has quickly emerged as a strong special teams weapon like Rehkow and Vander Haar before him, the Katy, Texas, product practically came out of nowhere compared to his punting predecessors.
Rehkow was a 6-foot-5, 235-pound physical specimen already on NFL radars, and Vander Haar came to the Cougars after having been a power conference starter at Pitt.
Shurtz, however, wasn’t recruited out of high school. Following a mission to Veracruz, Mexico, he arrived at BYU in 2023 as a “typical student,” watching Rehkow boom punts as a spectator at LaVell Edwards Stadium rather than as a teammate on the sideline.
But as he lived the freshman life with friends, classes and other activities, Shurtz felt he wasn’t ready to hang up his cleats. He slipped away several times a week throughout fall semester to get punting reps in, sometimes having to shovel snow to clear a spot for his workouts.
He practically majored in punting, all to remain ready in case an opportunity to play again presented itself.
“It’s always my dream to play college football at the DI level, and especially at BYU. My dad went here, and I grew up watching BYU football,” Shurtz told the Deseret News. “I just trained by myself, I just kicked and punted on the side and organized my school around that.”
‘It was God’s timing’
Even in the snow, working out by himself was the easy part. Getting the attention of coaches would be much more complicated, but he eventually worked up enough courage in early 2024 to take matters into his own hands.
“I came up to the facilities and waited outside the coaches’ offices, you know, as close as I could get,” Shurtz said. “I waited for about 30, 40 minutes until (Kelly Poppinga) came out, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is my chance.’
“I jumped right on the opportunity, introduced myself to him, told him where I was from and my background, and miraculously, that kind of sparked some interest in him. He gave me a chance and put me through a little kicking workout that same day.
“Some other miracles happened, some hard work, but now we’re here.”
The impromptu tryout led to Shurtz participating in spring practices with the Cougars, only to be cut and left off the 2024 roster.
It was “devastating” for Shurtz, but he once again kept the faith, bet on himself and continued “working and grinding.” A year later, he successfully — and finally — earned a permanent place in BYU’s program.
“My parents, my dad especially, they just kept telling me that I could do it, just not to give up, just follow my dreams and that I’ll never regret hard work,” Shurtz said. “There were also a lot of spiritual aspects, you know, with God leading the way. I definitely kept him at the forefront of everything I did, and he just kept telling me to stay the course, and everything would work out in the end.
“Everything just kind of worked out, it was God’s timing. I felt like I should come here. I had other opportunities and chances to go other places, and coach Poppinga was really helpful and helped me in reaching out to some other coaches, but I really felt like things were going to work out here at BYU, and I just trusted what I had felt.”
‘Very process-oriented’
As someone who spent nearly two years punting by himself, Shurtz is unsurprisingly obsessed with his craft.
Getting the most out of every ball he kicks is a constant quest. He craves fine-tuning his technique — at a self-described “OCD level.”
“Fuller’s a stud, he’s very process-oriented,” said BYU long snapper Ty Smith. “He’ll come out here, get 20 footballs, stand in a line and drop every single one for an hour, if that’s what he needs to do to be great.”
“Everything is working out, God has blessed me with this opportunity and he’s helping me to make the most of it.”
— BYU punter Fuller Shurtz
Shurtz is especially grateful to have been Vander Haar’s backup in 2025, as the accomplished veteran from Australia became a key mentor for Shurtz to learn from.
“Sam was awesome, it was great that I could sit behind Sam for a year,” Shurtz said. “He’s really knowledgeable about the game and especially just about all the niche little factors about punting. He taught me the rollout and the Aussie drop, which has been helping me a lot in my pin punts.
“I still text him, he still reaches out to me and I ask him (punting) questions, we still keep up.”
Just as he feels his own urge to improve, Shurtz is equally invested in helping to build up those around him, according to his teammates, just as Vander Haar did and continues to do for him.
“He’s always texting me, trying to get in early, trying to do extra work during the offseason, making sure we’re getting snaps and helping out Matthias (Dunn) by getting snaps for him kicking,” Smith said.
“He wants to bring everyone up around him and just make sure everyone’s doing what they need to do. He’s one of those guys that just wants to be the best, and he’ll do whatever he needs to do to make sure that he’s the best and that the people around him are the best.”
Specialists usually tend to be a tight-knit group on any football team, and Shurtz, Smith and Dunn are no exception, with the shared experience of each being first-time collegiate starters bonding them together even closer. For Shurtz, such relationships provide greater confidence.
“We rely on each other so much. I have so much trust in Ty and so much trust in Matthias to get their jobs done,” Shurtz said. “... It’s really valuable knowing that you’ve got a brother, you can trust him, he’s got your back and you’ve got his back.”
‘His leg is something that’s extraordinary’
Punting is just one of Shurtz’s athletic gifts.
In addition to placekicking and punting, he played receiver and cornerback at Katy High, helping the Tigers capture the Texas 6A state championship in 2020. Shurtz also earned all-district honors on the soccer field as a goalkeeper and competed in track and field as well.
Around Provo, he’s fond of golfing in the summer and engaging in epic locker room ping-pong battles with Smith, who says it’s a “dogfight” every time the pair matches up.
“He’s just a good guy to be around. He’s always somebody that, if I have an extra tee time, I’ll call him,” Smith said. “He wants to lift you up, he’ll make you laugh. He’s just an all-around great guy.”
During his prep career at Highland High in Gilbert, Arizona, Smith played for specialists coach Brian McNamara, whose son, Austin, currently punts for the New York Jets after a decorated college career at Texas Tech.
Smith has snapped to McNamara countless times over the years, but after playing with Shurtz, Smith believes the two punters “hit a very similar ball” despite Shurtz being 20 pounds lighter and nearly a half-foot shorter than McNamara.
“For a smaller body, his leg is something that’s extraordinary,” Smith said. “You don’t see that a lot.”
Shurtz’s soccer background helps explain his leg strength, but he says the speed and agility training from his wide receiver and cornerback days has made a significant difference as well. “Having quick leg speed will help with power.”
But even more so, his past experience in different places on the football field has been a true benefit for Shurtz within the mental side of punting.
“It helps the game seem a little slower in the moment, because I’m used to reading defenses and figuring out what I’m supposed to do in the moment,” Shurtz said. “So when you take that to punting, where I only have to think about a couple things and not a whole bunch of stuff, it kind of slows the game down, makes it a little more easier to manage.”
‘That’s what I live for’
Through three games, Shurtz’s punts are averaging 4.55 seconds in hang time, which ranks No. 2 nationally and would be No. 5 among NFL punters.
He’s yet to record a touchback, and only one of his seven punts has resulted in a return — for a mere 5 yards.
Punting in Provo used to be rather quiet for Shurtz during his solo workouts. Now, his field-flipping duties — whether it be a 54-yard blast against Utah Tech or successfully pinning Arizona at its 8-yard line — trigger the boisterous adoration of 60,000-plus fans.
Having been one of those fans just a few years ago, Shurtz is overflowing with gratitude to be living his dream on the field.
“I feel so blessed, it just feels amazing because I worked so hard for those two years to make it on the team,” Shurtz said. “I just knew and felt deep down that everything would work out, and so kind of seeing how I’ve gotten my chances and I’ve made the most of those opportunities, I’m really happy that my preparation has paid off.
“Everything is working out, God has blessed me with this opportunity and he’s helping me to make the most of it.”
Shurtz, who married his wife, Rachel, in June, is majoring in biology with a pre-dental emphasis. Dental school is “Plan B,” he says, to the NFL’s “Plan A.”
Wherever the future may lead, the redshirt junior Shurtz still has plenty of punts to provide for the Cougars in 2026 and beyond.
And he won’t take a single moment for granted.
“It’s just so cool to represent BYU,” Shurtz said. “I represent everyone in my family, and it’s just such a cool experience to know that all the hard work I put in, this is what it’s for, in this moment.
“To help give my team the best chance possible to win a game and to set the defense up in the best possible field position, that’s what I live for, it’s so awesome. When it works out, it’s great, and if it doesn’t work out, then it’s just another problem to solve, another thing to work through. I really like that too, the aspect of just growing and always progressing.”
