Tommy Townsend

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- For the last three years, Florida has had a punter that ranked in the Top 10 nationally in punting average. In fact, the last two years, nobody in the country topped Johnny Townsend's punting average.

When the Gators needed to flip the field, they'd turn to Townsend and more often than not he'd get the job done.

They'll do so again next fall. Only this time it won't be Johnny, it'll be his brother, Tommy Townsend.

"I think we're very similar punters. Johnny's obviously shown a lot of consistency and that's something I'm going to try to match, as well," the younger Townsend said. "Because obviously the end goal in the NFL. I'd love to play in the NFL as long as I can. The only difference is I kickoff so hopefully I'll get the kickoff job this year. I've been working really hard this off-season so we'll see how it goes."

Townsend transferred to Florida after redshirting as a freshman at Tennessee. He sat out in 2016 due to NCAA transfer rules and then didn't play a year ago as Johnny handled punting.

Now it's his turn, and he hopes to put himself in a similar position as his brother.

Johnny could easily be drafted in two weeks, with a booming leg and the ability to control his punts both for hang-time and accuracy. Tommy will have a lot more to show if he hopes for the same in a few years.

With a change in coaching staff, there could even be a new wrinkle in the Florida punting game.

"It’s basically the same thing. Just punt right, punt left," Townsend said. "This year I think we might be doing a little bit of roll-out stuff, which we haven’t done the past couple years with coach (Jim McElwain). But I’m excited for the season and what coach Dan Mullen’s going do for us."

In the meantime, Tommy will have to deal with the inevitable comparisons to his brother. They're inevitable, particularly when families like the Colquitts have produced multiple NFL-caliber punters over the years.

The Townsends haven't spanned multiple generations yet, but Johnny and Tommy could easily form a pretty good 1-2 punting duo.

Johnny has averaged 44.8 yards per punt this spring, he said. Not quite as good as Johnny's 47.6-yard average in 2017 or 47.9-yard average in 2016.

But there's room to improve still.

"I'm not really thinking too much about his stats," Tommy said. "I'm just going out there and trying to do the best that I can do and go from there."

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