UNC Football: Ben Kiernan to miss rest of 2023 season

The UNC football program’s special teams unit took a major hit, as Ben punter Kiernan has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

Last week, punter Ben Kiernan was a major storyline in the UNC football program’s victory over Syracuse.

After a punt of his was blocked, the Dublin, Ireland native made a heads-up play, recovering the botched punt. After picking up the football, Kiernan hustled down the sideline, taking a major hit near the first down marker.

His facemask looked to have taken the biggest part of the hit, but it’s his knee that suffered the most damage.

As first reported by Inside Carolina, Kiernan will miss the remainder of the 2023 season due to a knee injury. Prior to the injury, Kiernan averaged 41.2 yards over 9 punts, two of which were blocked during ACC play.

Through his five seasons with the Tar Heels, Kiernan holds a career 43.6 yards per punt average. In total, his punts as a Tar Heel have traveled 8,546 punting yards.

At the moment, Cole Maynard, the Tar Heels’ holder for field goal attempts, is listed as the team’s backup. He currently has two career punt attempts as a member of the UNC football program. Along with Maynard, the Tar Heels also have Australian transfer Tom Maginness as an option to fill the void.

The news is unfortunate, as Kiernan has gotten the job done consistently for the UNC football program. Of course, the Tar Heels hope that they won’t have to punch much, but it will be important that when they need to, one of the aforementioned punters can get the job done.

Follow us @KeepingItHeel on X (formerly Twitter) and like our fan page on Facebook for continued coverage of UNC football news, updates, and recruiting.