I’d imagine moving from Australia to Texas is a bit of a culture shock, but Texas Tech’s recently committed Auzzie punter, Dominic Panzzolo, looks like he’s gonna fit in alright.
Texas Tech’s Australian punter boots a ball into the sky, then shoots it with a shotgun
Guns up indeed.
Panazzolo committed in October.
And he’s the most recent in what has been a pipeline of Australian punters to the states. But it’s been a long time coming.
The Australia-to-American football pipeline for punters and kickers made its first splash in 1994, with Darren Bennett punting for the San Diego Chargers. It had roots in the late-1980s, when Colin Scotts became the first Aussie to earn a football scholarship and played briefly as a defensive end for the St. Louis Cardinals, and in 1965, when Lamar University track athlete Colin Ridgeway of Melbourne played in three games for the Dallas Cowboys.
Obviously, kicker and punter is the most easily translatable position for a culture that features rugby prominently.
College football is also doing a bit to penetrate the Australian market with games down under. Cal and Hawaii opened this season in Sydney. Stanford and Rice look like they might do the same next season.
If we can get guys who can pull off what Panazzolo did in that video, in addition to ones who can deliver soundbites like Utah’s Paul Hackett does here, college football is much better off thanks to an Aussie invasion.
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