NASHVILLE, Tenn. – For the first time since 2002, Vanderbilt football has produced an Academic All-American. Punter Matthew Hayball has added first-team Academic All-America to his All-American and All-SEC accolades. The 2023 Academic All-America teams for football were announced by College Sports Communicators Tuesday.
Hayball was selected the first-team punter, becoming the first Academic All-American at Vanderbilt since Hunter Hillenmeyer was a first-team linebacker in 2002. Hayball is the eighth player in school history to earn first-team honors and it marks the 17th overall Academic All-America selection for Vanderbilt football. Hayball is just the second Academic All-American at Vandy since 1990.
The Academic All-America team is selected by a vote of College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA) membership. Student-athletes are selected from the Academic All-District team by a committee before a national vote to determine the Academic All-America teams across all divisions.
Hayball owned a 3.89 grade-point average in his graduate program of leadership and organizational performance at Vanderbilt. He graduated from Florida Atlantic before transferring to Vanderbilt, posting a 3.63 grade-point average while earning a finance degree.
He capped his collegiate career as one of the best punters in Vanderbilt history. Hayball was named a finalist for the Ray Guy Award and was the first Commodore punter to earn first-team All-SEC since 1996. He owns the best career punting average in school history (46.5 yards per punt) and his two seasons as a Commodore each rank among the top-five single-season marks at Vandy.
Hayball led the SEC this season and finished fourth in FBS with 47.6 yards per punt. He ranked seventh nationally with a net punting average of 43.1 yards and was the second-highest graded punter by Pro Football Focus (88.8). He pinned opponents inside the 20-yard line on 26 occasions.
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.
With his tenure at Florida Atlantic, Hayball appeared in 59 games, punting 289 times for 13,073 yards. He was one of two active punters during the 2023 season across all divisions of NCAA football (FBS, FCS, D-II, D-III) to have eclipsed 12,000 career yards. His career average was 45.2 yards per punt, and he pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard-line on 108 occasions.
Hayball was joined on the first team by new Vanderbilt long snapper Julian Ashby. Ashby boasted a 3.97 grade-point average as a physics major at Furman University. The Lilburn, Georgia, native enrolled at Vanderbilt this month after spending three seasons as the Paladins’ long snapper. He was a three-time Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll selection.
Vanderbilt Football Academic All-Americans
1954 – John Hall (G), second team
1958 – Don Donnell (C), first team
1968 – Jim Burns (DB), first team
1973 – Doug Martin (WR), second team
1974 – Doug Martin (WR), first team
1974 – Scott Wingfield (DB), second team
1975 – Damon Regen (LB), first team
1977 – Greg Martin (K), first team
1983 – Phil Roach (WR), first team
1984 – Bob Illes (TE), second team
1984 – Craig Yo (DB), second team
1987 – Andy McCarroll (FB), second team
1987 – DeMond Winston (DE), second team
1988 – Andy McCarroll (FB), second team
1989 – Andy McCarroll (LB), second team
2002 – Hunter Hillenmeyer (LB), first team
2023 – Matthew Hayball (P), first team
