ATLANTA, Georgia – A day from now, Tom Hackett will accept his second Ray Guy award, given to college football’s best punter. He’ll become an even bigger celebrity than he already is after declaring that the reason he punts is because “deep down I’m fat and I don’t like running very far.” And hoards of new fans will be introduced to the Australian with the mustache who has been one of the sport’s best interviews for years.
For now, though, Hackett is seated alone at a small table with his arms crossed. His eyes dart to all the movement going on around him on the second floor of the College Football Hall of Fame. Players are being ushered in and ushered out, TV cameras and their owners exhibit their typical franticness, and most of it all seems to pass right by Hackett, who is so comfortable he could probably take a nap right there in the middle of it all.
The gifted Utah punter is part of the rise of Australian punters in football, and the takeover at that position is real. Wake Forest’s Alex Kinal, Ohio State’s Cameron Johnston, Michigan’s Blake O’Neill, Penn State’s Daniel Pasquariello, and others have followed in the footsteps of guys like Brad Wing as the Rugby (or Australian rules football) style kick gets more and more popular.
Hackett took a few minutes to do a short interview with UPROXX Sports, and he talked everything from tailgating to his philosophies on the art of punting.
Martin Rickman: Are you cool with football taking over the New Year’s holiday?
Tom Hackett: Of course. I’m a football player so it would be silly for me to say not. I guess coming over here I didn’t watch much football, but the past couple years I started watching it more and I love the sport. If there’s football on New Year’s, I’ll be watching it.
If you were someone hosting a tailgate or something similar on New Year’s, do you have any tips?
I’ve never really been tailgating because as soon as I got over here, I started playing. Last week I tailgated for the first time. It was a little bit different. I’m the wrong person to ask advice for about that.
What was your first tailgating experience like?
I was actually at the Pac-12 Championship watching Stanford and USC play. I was invited to a VIP tailgate hosted by the Pac-12, so I kind of had to be on my best behavior. I wasn’t able to let loose maybe as much as I would have liked, but it was a good time.
Would you do it again?
Tailgating? Of course. Next year when I come back to Utah to watch a game or two, I will hopefully get the BBQ out and put some meats and sausage on there, and have a few beers.
That play against Oregon has to be up there in plays of the year, but where’s it rank in experiences for you?
It was memorable, and it kind of always will be. It wasn’t designed for that to happen with the snap, and I was fortunate enough to catch the ball like I did. If I tried that again I probably wouldn’t have caught it. I don’t know why on that particular evening I was able to catch the ball. Once I caught it and got the 30-odd yards I got, it was cool I was able to do it. We didn’t really need it at the time, so I’m surprised coach called it. It kind of threw me off. Gave me a gray hair or two, but I think I’ll stick to the art of punting from now on.
It seems like you’re always going to be learning that art.
I will continue to learn the art of punting until the day I decide to stop playing. I think I’m speaking on behalf of every punter out there, including the 32 in the NFL. They’d be lying to you if they said every day they went out and got five-second punts. I’ve spoken to a few of them personally and they say they have days when they’re not hitting the ball like they’d like to. It’s a challenge, and I think that’s why I enjoy the grind. Physically it’s not all that demanding, but mentally it’s tough, and you’ve got to be strong mentally to overcome adversity and figure out on a particular day what you can’t do or what you should be doing. If you can do that well, then you’re going to be in a good spot.
There’s so many things that go into it whether it’s the snap, weather conditions, or a particular game situation. You can practice as many times as you want, but there’s always going to be stuff in play.
You have to rise to the challenge, and on a weekly basis I see kids at our home field and when we travel away – the opposition punter – in pregame, he might be smashing the ball, killing it, and his first punt in the game won’t be what it was when he was practicing. There are a multitude of reasons why: the crowd, maybe wind has picked up, I don’t know, something has to click. It’s happened to me before. It’s crazy just to see the game and how it changes your body and your muscle movement. When you’re out there you certainly tighten up just a little more than when you would kicking by yourself. It doesn’t really matter how many times you tell yourself not to do that, you’re going to probably do it. The sport for me, I watch football for fourth downs, and I think I’ll forever be like that.
There’s this rise of Aussie punters that’s happening almost concurrently with the rise of Australian basketball players. Is this a takeover?
I can’t talk regarding basketball really. But in terms of football, I wouldn’t call it a takeover. I’d just call it an inflation of punters that have decided to play. They’ve seen what some of us have done over here like with Cam Johnston at Ohio State, Alex Kinal, Danny at Penn State, and every year there are guys coming over to really big schools and making the TVs back home. The guys that grow up playing Australian rules football, I mean, if you look at myself in particular, all I really do is play Australian rules football. I go out there, and I’ll sometimes choose to do the traditional punt, but for the most part I roll out and do the drop punt, which you guys call a rugby kick. If you get a free education out of it and play in front of however many people each week, it’s an opportunity that’s hard to pass up.
Do you feel like you’ve noticed a rise in popularity of American football back home?
Yes, I do. It’s growing, and at the start of this year when Jarryd Hayne was playing for the San Francisco 49ers, it kind of blew up for a second there. Back home the media started to latch on and it became this bandwagon sport. Since he has gone off the radar and such, it’d died down. But it’s grown, it’s a growing sport back home. I don’t think it’ll ever be as big as Australian football or rugby, but there’s interest back home. You go back there for Super Bowl parties, and you can have some big ones there. People do love the game, and that’s exciting.
What’s the most common misconception about Australia you had to correct your teammates on, and what was the most common misconception you had about your teammates they had to teach you about?
A lot of the kids in Utah haven’t really traveled much unless they’ve gone on an LDS [Latter-day Saints] mission or something. I think the main thing, and it sounds stupid, is a lot of kids have asked about the kangaroo population and what it’s like. I explained to them that if you go out in the Outback you’ll see them, but I’m a city boy through and through. I was born in Sydney, and I grew up in Melbourne. There’s cities that are just as big as Atlanta. And you don’t really see many kangaroos strolling the streets in suburban Melbourne. That was the biggest one. For me, I was fortunate to come over here with my family when I was about 8 years old. I was young. So I kind of knew what I was getting myself into. The main thing I was most interested in was the LDS culture. It’s huge in Utah, and that was something I had to learn. I had to ask questions, I mean, I didn’t even know the religion existed until I went over there. I don’t come from a religious family. That was something to adjust to.
It’s one of those things. You don’t know about it, it’s foreign, but you get in the locker room and everyone’s just people.
Yeah, on Sundays they do their own thing, and I go and play golf. That’s about as complex as it gets.
Have you gone skiing?
I have. I’ve been dating a girl for a couple years, and she has two older brothers that are really good skiers, and she’s a really good skier. So we go out a bunch, and they teach me. I wasn’t very good when I started, and I’m still not very good, but I can hang without falling now.
That’s all that matters anyway.
That’s all I care about. To be honest with you, I get a little nervous out there in case I get hurt or something, but it’s a lot of fun.
