Northern Arizona’s do-it-all special-teams weapon with NFL-level leg strength
Ernster was a rare college special-teams triple threat at Northern Arizona: by 2004, he was handling place-kicking, kickoff, and punting duties, and he earned first-team Big Sky honors as both a kicker and punter. His calling card was leg strength and reliability under workload, capped by a senior-year national-best 47.8 yards per punt and a career 213 points, which ranked third in school history. For a team needing a versatile, high-volume specialist with proven big-game range and punting upside, he checked a lot of boxes.
