BOCA RATON, Fla. – Matt Hayball, a redshirt sophomore on the Florida Atlantic University football team (5-3, 4-2 Conference USA), was named to the 2020 C-USA Football All-Academic team, as announced Thursday by the league
“I’m really proud to be a part of that. I try to take my academics pretty seriously,” said Hayball. “We have a lot of good resources, here at FAU, and I feel like it would be remiss to not try to preform as best as I can in the classroom. I feel like it would be a waste of the great opportunity I have here.”.
The punter from West Adelaide, Australia, a C-USA Commissioners Honor Roll selection and C-USA Academic Medal winner, makes his debut on the All-Academic team, but was previously a member of the 2019 C-USA All-Freshman Team for his competitive performance. The business finance major, who is honored as just one of 11 student-athletes on the 2020 C-USA All-Academic team, holds a 3.940 GPA. He made the FAU Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 Dean’s List (top 10% in college) and was on the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 FAU All-Academic Team.
Hayball currently ranks third in C-USA with a 44.5 yard punting average, has 16 kicks inside the 20, and 11 punts of 50 yards or longer. He was named as part of the Ray Guy Award “Ray’s 4” for top punting performances of the week following the WKU game where had a season-long 70-yard punt.
All-Time Owls on the C-USA All-Academic Football Team
Dillon DeBoer, 2015
Dillon DeBoer, 2016
Greg Joseph, 2017
Jason Driskel, 2017
Harrison Bryant, 2018
Harrison Bryant, 2019
Matt Hayball, 2020
Hayball will lead the team in next week’s Montgomery Bowl, scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 23 versus Memphis. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN.
BOWL NOTES
- This marks the program’s fifth bowl since 2007, the first season FAU was eligible to play in a bowl game, and third bowl game in the last four years
- Previous Bowl appearances: 2007 New Orleans Bowl (FAU 44, Memphis 27), 2008 Motor City Bowl (FAU 24, Central Michigan 21), 2017 Boca Raton Bowl (FAU 50, Akron 3), 2019 Boca Raton (FAU 52, SMU 28)
