Texas Football: Ryan Bujcevski out for season with ACL tear
Rough news struck for the Texas football punting unit on Nov. 9, with the announcement that junior punter Ryan Bujcevski will miss the rest of the season.
Really bad news surfaced for the special teams unit of the Texas football program to start the week. Texas figured out it would be without junior punter Ryan Bujcevski for the remainder of the 2020 season, after he tore his ACL in last weekend’s win over second-year head coach Neal Brown and the West Virginia Mountaineers, by the final score of 17-13.
Bujcevski had to be replaced by junior kicker Cameron Dicker for the punting duties in the fourth quarter, after he suffered this lower-body injury. And that looks to be a permanent replacement for the rest of the season. This is not the first time that an injury caused Bujcevski to miss significant time, and forced a kicker to assume the punting duties.
Texas had current SMU Mustangs kicker Chris Naggar assume some of the punting duties last season after Bujcevski suffered an upper-body injury. Naggar wound up assuming the punting duties for 25 snaps last season, and did a decent job in the process.
Texas punter Ryan Bujcevski has a torn ACL. Kicker Cameron Dicker will take over punting duties in his place.https://t.co/LzDGlGpSyR pic.twitter.com/OInFMMh6iB
— 247Sports (@247Sports) November 9, 2020
Although Dicker looked to be ready to assume the punting duties after the injury to Bujcevski last weekend, he didn’t have to take any snaps with that unit. If the Longhorns have any punting responsibility in their next matchup, set for Nov. 21 on the road against the lowly Kansas Jayhawks, then Dicker would get his first career punt at that point.
It is good for Dicker and the Longhorns that they’re currently in the midst of a bye week to prepare for the change to the punting unit. Texas enters the bye week with a record of 5-2 (4-2 Big 12), building a three-game winning streak after their Nov. 7 four-point triumph over West Virginia.
Through six games played this season, Bujcevski was improving his numbers before this injury struck. He registered 1,687 total punting yards on 39 tries this season (good for an average just over 43 yards per punt).
Next. Disappointing players halfway through 2020 season. dark
Bujcevski had improved his punting average to a career-best 43.3 yards per punt so far this season. Hopefully that pace of progression is something that can carry into the 2021 season once he’s healthy and recovered from this ACL tear.