Place of birth: Enid, Oklahoma Role American football player Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Weight 80 kg | College: Auburn Education Auburn University Name Kody Bliss Positions Punter | |
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Date of birth: (1985-02-21) February 21, 1985 (age 30) | ||
Kody Andrew Bliss (born February 21, 1985) is a former American football punter. He attended Brentwood Academy in Brentwood, Tennessee before signing in 2003 to play collegiately at Auburn University. He currently attends the University of Alabama School of Medicine training to become a physician.
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College career
While at Auburn, Bliss was on the Ray Guy Award watchlist his senior year. During the 2006 season, he led the Southeastern Conference with 46.1 yards per punt and also had 12 downed inside the 20-yard line. This performance earned him second team All-SEC honors from the AP and the SEC Coaches for the third time, having been named All-Conference for every year since his sophomore season. He also earned SEC Special Teams Player of the Week against LSU.
During his career at Auburn, Bliss totalled 202 punts for 8,861 yards. He finished third in Auburn history with a 43.3 yard per punt average. Bliss' career long was a 71 yard boot versus Tulane, but he had punts of over 60 yards in all four seasons.
DraftShowcase.com ranked Bliss as the second best punter available for the 2007 NFL Draft, while Scout.com have him as the 4th overall. After a strong showing in the 82nd annual East-West Shrine Game, USA Today wrote that "Bliss can punt long, high and with accuracy. If any punter is selected in this draft, Bliss is among the first three with a chance".
CFL
Despite the ratings, Bliss went undrafted by the NFL and subsequently signed with the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos. Bliss was ultimately unable to unseat longtime Eskimos veteran and native-Canadian Sean Fleming to make the roster and was released on June 23, 2007.
AAFL
It was recently announced that Bliss was among those to be protected by the All American Football League's Team Alabama.
Personal life
Bliss was among the inaugural class of 345 inductees into the National Football Foundation's National Honor Society, a recognition program for players who excel both on the field and in the classroom. Bliss graduated with a degree in marketing and earned a 3.45 cumulative GPA.