The other night, during Utah’s upset win over UCLA, the Utah punter put on quite a show. I’d never seen anyone punt like that, and I wondered if maybe he’d been a rugby player or something like that.
I was semi-close- turns out he’s an Australian named Tom Hackett who grew up playing Aussie football.
As I watched, I wondered… could this be the Next Big Thing in football, the way soccer style place kickers were when I was a kid? Or is Hackett just an interesting oddity, one who’ll be fairly quickly forgotten?
Could/should Aussie style punting become widespread? Why or why not?
What’s different?
I am sports clueless but sort of familiar with Aussie Rules Football.
It already is widespread. Look at the NFL rosters. The NCAA is getting full of them. Off the top of my head, Hawaii has one, so does Ohio State, LSU, as well as Utah. Nebraska and Michigan State both used that style last night although neither punters were Aussies. Colorado uses it. You’re way late on this one.
Moved to the Game Room (from Cafe Society) and fixed typo in thread title.
[quote=“Lamar_Mundane, post:3, topic:700448”]
It already is widespread. Look at the NFL rosters. The NCAA is getting full of them. Off the top of my head, Hawaii has one, so does Ohio State, LSU, as well as Utah. Nebraska and Michigan State both used that style last night although neither punters were Aussies. Colorado uses it. You’re way late on this one.
[/QUOTE]
Apparently.
I think the Australian Football types are here to stay. The drop kick they learn makes them well suited to American football.
The Cowboys signed Australian Mat McBriar in 2004. I remember the announcers talking about how the “flip-flop punt” he kicked was one they used in Aussie Rules. The backwards end-over-end rotation it had when it left his foot made it more likely to bounce away from the endzone, so it was easier to down inside the 10 yard line.
I don’t think Mat ever played at the upper levels of the AFL and instead learned American football at the University of Hawaii. He’s the earliest I can remember.
Harrumph, Wiki has a list.
Checking that article, a bloke named Darren Bennett was signed by the Chargers in 1995 and played 159 NFL games. In the AFL, he played for a couple teams in the 80’s, including Melbourne where he kicked for 215 goals in 74 matches.
FWIW the Aussie rules style drop punt has already taken over rugby and rugby league. I haven’t seen a spiral punt since the late 90s.