One of the biggest standouts at the 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl wasn’t someone who took the field frequently, but when he did, heads turned to watch him work. BYU P Ryan Rehkow was booming punts in practice leading up to the Shrine Bowl, and in the game, he booted two punts for 84 yards, including one inside the 20. Rehkow met with the Steelers during his time in Frisco, and in an interview with Steelers Depot he talked about his journey and process of becoming one of the top punters available in the draft.
Rehkow doesn’t feel much pressure when he’s punting. Despite being under the spotlight and not necessarily getting a lot of recognition, except for really good or really bad punts, Rehkow thinks other positions have it worse.
“I feel like there’s a lot more pressure in other positions, even working with kickers and stuff. We’re right with them, so for me, it’s not really a lot of pressure. You just kick a ball and take care of business. If people recognize it, great, if not, you’re probably doing your job,” Rehkow said.
As a Mormon, Rehkow went on a two-year mission trip before his career at BYU. He described the trip as “awesome,” and also talked about how it made him even more hungry to play college football and pursue the sport.
“I knew I was gonna go play college football afterward. So for those two years, it was like, I really want to play, but I knew that was something that I should do. And so coming back I was super hungry just to get back in the swing of things, and I feel like it definitely taught me a lot about preparation and work ethic. And so sliding into college football wasn’t a huge transition, it was like I know exactly how to take care of business and do what needs to be done. And then after that, love to kick a football. So it was all enjoyable for me.”
Once he returned from his mission trip, he won the punting job as a true freshman and excelled during all four years of his collegiate career. He averaged 47.4 yards per punt over his career, including 48.4 yards per punt on 68 punts last season for BYU in their first year in the Big 12. He has a nice, easy delivery that helped win him the SpecOps 2022 Pro-Style Punter of the Year, and he’s still working on being even better as he enters the NFL.
“Just being able to hit as good of a ball as I know I can, time after time after time. I know being perfect is unrealistic, but it’s still not gonna stop me from trying to do that. I think when you’re able to get your worst balls to still be good by other people’s standards, that’s kind of the signal that you’re a really good punter.
Rehkow described his meeting with Pittsburgh during Shrine Bowl week as “awesome,” and also had a good meeting with the New York Jets. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see his stock boosted after his performance all week, and with the Steelers potentially looking to move on from or add competition for Pressley Harvin III this offseason, Rehkow could be a really solid fit as a rookie with proven collegiate production and an NFL-ready delivery and mindset.
