Edited yesterday at 02:01 AM1 day by Smith72
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I'm hoping I'm not the only one who thinks this is teasing something like one of the University's athletic teams playing in Australia, also, what does the punter joke mean?

Australia is known for producing good to great punters.

I was thinking the joke was about recruiting at the bottom of the world, sort of like Bugs Bunny cartoons, where the traveling rabbit ends up hanging from the underside of the Earth... "musta tooka wrong turn at Albuquerque"!

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by woundedknees

1 hour ago, Thomallister1291 said:

also, what does the punter joke mean?

Ther is a school down in Australia called Prokick Australia. It's where many of the NCAA football programs go to recruit their punters. The benefit of recruiting punters out of this program is they focus their training exclusively on kicking and punting. Also, their balls spin the opposite direction as American punters because they're from the southern hemisphere which makes their punts bounce backward instead of rolling into the end zone.

Pretty sure the punter we stole from Boise is Australian

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by JabbaNoBargain

From Oct. 2023, NY Times:  61 of the 133 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top tier of N.C.A.A. football, have Aussie punters on their rosters, according to Prokick Australia, a Melbourne-based academy that converts Australian rules football players and some rugby players into punters (and a smaller number of kickers) for the American game.

The N.C.A.A. does not keep a single database on the birthplace of punters. But Australians have made a pronounced impact with the distance and placement of their punts, which can produce tricky curves and crafty bounces and rolls. Eight times in the past 13 seasons, Australians have won the Ray Guy Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding collegiate punter.

2023:  Tory Taylor, Melbourne – Iowa

2022:  Adam Korsak, Melbourne – Rutgers

2019:  Max Duffy, Perth – Kentucky

2016:  Michael Dickson, Sydney – Texas

2015:  Mitchell Wishnowsky, Perth – Utah

2013-14:  Tom Hackett, Melbourne – Utah

2012:  Tom Hornsey, Geelong – Memphis

Entrance into ProKick requires at least a 40-yard punt, 4.5-second hang time and an invitation. According to Chapman and Smith, about 90 percent of the program’s “graduates” get NCAA scholarships.

James Ferguson-Reynolds has transferred from Boise State to Oregon.  Hometown Geelong.  Played in 12 games in 2024 as the Broncos’ punter and holder…punted eight times at No. 7 Oregon, recording a season-long 68-yard punt (Sept. 7)… averaged 56.0 yards per punt in a win over Oregon State, placing a 64-yard punt inside the 20 (Nov. 29)….In 2023, played in all 14 games…averaged a nation-best 49.7 yards per punt, with 29 punts traveling 50+ yards and 23 punts landing inside the 20…punted seven times for 365 yards at Washington, averaging 52.1 yards per punt and tallying five that traveled over 50 yards (Sept. 2)

Since he is now in the Big Ten, the Ducks are going to have to focus a bit more on rush protection, but at those distances maybe he can set up a yard or two deeper?