OHIO STATE Punter award didn't come easy for B.J.

Sander placed almost half of his punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- No offense, Michael Jenkins, but had Adrien Clarke voted he wouldn't have cast his team MVP ballot for the standout wide receiver.
"Mike was a great player for us this year," said Clarke, who somehow missed the opportunity to vote for the team award last month. "Honestly, my vote for MVP would have been B.J. Sander."
Sander is the Buckeyes' punter. Punters are seldom considered the most valuable member of a team. But Clarke makes a strong case.
"B.J. bailed us out of a lot. He was a great guy, he overcame a lot of adversity. He came out and did the job as well," Clarke said. "My vote would have gone to B.J. Sander."
There are volumes of stats to support Sander's candidacy. Funny thing is that a year ago he was just a kid like dozens of others who had scrapbooks full of press clippings from high school exploits and then never panned out in college.
Background
Sander was recruited out of St. Bernard Roger Bacon High School after earning first-team Associated Press All-Ohio status as a senior. He averaged 43.5 yards per punt as a junior and 40.4 as a senior, when he also kicked a 60-yard field goal.
Then he came to Ohio State and ... nothing.
One punt would go 60 yards in the air, then the next one would come off the side of his foot and travel 16 yards.
Sander couldn't master the consistency question. An injury his freshman year cost him valuable experience, then Dan Stultz, the Buckeyes' placekicker, did double duty the next season while Sander battled inner doubts and inconsistency on the field.
With Stultz graduated, the job was expected to be Sander's in 2001. But walk-on Andy Groom soared past him on the depth chart. Groom graduated a year ago as a first-team All-American while Sander was a major disappointment who was running out of chances.
That all changed this summer when he continually boomed punts and took over the job.
At ease
"The difference was knowing that I'm the guy, that I don't have to battle with somebody else," Sander said. "And feeling relaxed when I'm out there and going out and having a good time."
The result was a spectacular senior season, capped by winning the Ray Guy Award, which is presented annually to the nation's top punter. He beat out Dustin Colquitt of Tennessee and Kyle Larson of Nebraska.
"It was a little bit of a shock," Sander said in the understatement of the year.
"That's exciting. We've never had a Ray Guy winner," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said. "I think he's got a bright future. He looks to me like those guys you see on Sunday who -- BOOM! -- they hit 'em way up in the air. I hope he gets an opportunity."
So often, a punter is judged solely on his average. Sander finished second in the Big Ten with an average of 43.63 yards per punt.
But that doesn't tell the whole story. Of his 75 punts, he placed almost half (48 percent) inside the opponent's 20-yard line. Instead of putting pressure on his own defense, he was the one applying pressure to the other team's offense.
Make or break
Against Purdue, for instance, seven of his 10 punts landed inside the 20. He might have been the difference in a 16-13 victory in overtime.
"I'm extremely happy with the year I had," Sander said. "As was made obvious by the award, a lot of other people thought I had a good year, too. I just wanted to go out and give our team the best shot I could to win."
Sander was an example for a lot of players -- a forgotten guy who patiently awaited his time and then made the most of it. It is that, perhaps more than his stats, that won him the admiration of Tressel.
"I love stories of persistence that end up happy endings," Tressel said. "Here's a guy who came in and played early, got injured, then got behind another guy. He just worked hard on what he wanted to be and did whatever we asked. He did what the team needed."