PISCATAWAY, N.J. — A season of acclimation has set up Rutgers football punter Flynn Appleby for this spring. The past year to learn from a legend, the Australian punter says, is invaluable.
The legacy of Australian kickers at Rutgers dates back to Tim Gleeson, who was one of the nation’s best punters in 2015 when he averaged 40.3 yards per punt. In the last five seasons, Rutgers has been fortunate to have Adam Korsak as their punter, giving them a truly elite advantage on special teams.
And now Appleboy takes over for Korsak, who won the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s top punter last year. He shares some similar attributes to Korsak which helps the transition process on multiple levels.
“I think it was part of the recruiting process looking for someone that sort of had similar attributes to Adam and we’re pretty similar in style – the skill set and that sort of stuff,” Appleby said.
“So, everybody’s got their own little different aspects of their technique and so it’s just understanding that and trusting it – just been refining that for the last eight months probably since I got here. It’s been a great process to learn all that. It’s a whole new sport to understand the rules and all that sort of stuff as well. So it’s been been a great time.”
A former Australian Rules Football player, Appleby has had to learn the American game, making last year an important period of immersion into the sport.
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Gleeson was one of his mentors, helping to train Appleby on the ins and outs of the American game.
“I played Australian football – AFL – for three years, playing full time there and didn’t play quite well enough in my final year and moved to like a semi-professional league and played a year there,” Appleby said.
“And I was looking to further my education as well – not studying in Australia at the time but wanted to change degrees. And, you know, I was really still sort of had a thirst to pursue some professional football or at least continue in sport and I knew a couple of people that have come over in the past from Australia over the last 10 years. Prokick Australia has done a great job getting guys over here. So just through different connections, had a had an idea of coming over and reached out to Prokick and I was probably there for about 10 months, I think. I just spent time with them learning about the game. Really I was just looking for a new opportunity.”
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