Newly minted TCU punter John Hoyet Chance cracked the top ten of the position ratings for the upcoming College Football 27 video game. Could this accolade be an indication of what's to come on the field?
The college football season is still a bit out from getting underway, but EA is gearing up to roll out the third version of its resurrected video game series based around the sport.
During the lead up to launch, EA Sports has unveiled rankings for various teams, players and positions and TCU made an appearance at the top of a few of these lists.
One such case was the Horned Frogs punter John Hoyet Chance, who slotted in as the No. 9 punter in the latest edition of the game with an 82 overall rating.
He sits behind Evan Crenshaw of Troy at 85, a trio of 84 overalls in Bryan Hansen of West Virginia, Ethan Pulliam of Mississippi State and Rhys Dakin of Michigan State.
Three others sit at 83 overall with Bryce McFerson of Maryland, Jackson Ross of Tennessee and Oscar Bird of Ole Miss. Finally, Hoyet Chance is technically ranked behind Daniel Sparks of Virginia, who is also an 82 overall.
Hoyet Chance is prepping for his first season as the boot man in Fort Worth after spending last year at Louisiana Tech. While with the Bulldogs, he appeared in 13 games and booted 66 punts, with a staggering 72-yarder serving as his longest of the year.
Hoyet Chance also took a few snaps as the primary kicker, converting four field goals off seven attempts and three extra points in his redshirt freshman season. He also sent away 64 kickoffs for an average of 65 yards per kick.
With Kyle Lemmerman, TCU seems set at kicker but having a multi-talented counterpart in Hoyet Chance is never a negative and could be a big-time benefit heading into their latest campaign.
Obviously, the ratings put out by EA Sports mean nothing outside of the matchups taking place on the virtual field, however, more often than not the developers are not arbitrarily selecting these numbers and they can be used to help get a preview ahead of the opening game.
This can be especially true for those players that are suiting up for a program for the first time, such as Hoyet Chance. Which in this case sets the new punter up with high expectations in Fort Worth.
Although Sonny Dykes and company are hoping to generate a high-powered offense and reach the end zone quite a few times with first-year Horned Frog quarterback Jaden Craig, it appears that the team can take comfort in knowing that they lay claim to one of the most potent legs in the sport that can flip the field if the scoring chances do not always pan out.
