Jackson Ross named to the 2023 SEC Football All-Freshman Team.
Tennessee punter and holder Jackson Ross was named to the 2023 SEC Football All-Freshman Team.
Ross appeared in 12 games for the Vols during the regular-season.
He punted 48 times for 2,053 yards, averaging 42.8 yards per attempt. Ross ranked third in the SEC and sixth nationally among freshmen punters.
The redshirt freshman recorded nine punts of 50-plus yards, including a 71-yard attempt against Alabama on Oct. 21. He had 18 punts land inside the 20-yard line.
Ross, a Melbourne, Australia native, set a single-game record for punting average (minimum of five punts), totaling five punts for 226 yards, averaging 53.2 yards per attempt. His mark eclipsed Jimmy Colquitt’s record of 53.0 yards per punt set in 1982 against LSU and 1983 against Auburn.
Tennessee punter Jackson Ross is confident ahead of the 2023 season.
Redshirt freshman punter Jackson Ross enters his second season at Tennessee.
The 6-foot-3, 195-pound Ross redshirted in 2022 and did not appear in any games with the Vols.
Ross discussed his comfort level heading into the 2023 season after being at Tennessee for a full year.
“I’m really confident now going into this season,” Ross said. “I think being here last season and just sort of taking a back seat was huge for me to learn about the game, understand sort of punt, and it’s been great transitioning into this season being the No. 1 punter and focusing this game on myself and being able to adapt to all that and feel rushes at practice and stuff like that. I think it’s put me into a great stead heading into the year.”
Ross came to Tennessee from Prokick Australia in Melbourne, Australia. He also played two years with Hawthorn Football Club of the Australian Football League.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Ross is from Prokick Australia in Melbourne, Australia. Ross also played two years with Hawthorn Football Club of the Australian Football League.
“I am honored to announce that I have committed to study and play football at the University of Tennessee on full scholarship,” Ross announced.
Tim Gleeson served as Ross’ coach with Prokick Australia. Gleeson played punter at Wyoming, Santa Barbara City College and Rutgers.
Gleeson discussed Prokick Australia and Ross committing to Tennessee with Vols Wire.
“He’s a gun, most versatile punter I’ve seen,” Gleeson said of Ross. “Tennessee is definitely lucky to have him. It’s been in the works for a while. We had him pencilled in there, on our big board, probably around a year ago. He came in to the program around a year back during COVID-19 lockdowns, tricky time of the year as it’s probably just a tad too little time to get him prepared and out as a mid-year January transfer.
“We knew Tennessee had a senior punter, so pushed for a redshirt option behind Paxton (Brooks). His film speaks for itself, pretty incredible. We haven’t worked with (Josh) Heupel or (Mike) Ekeler previously, so this was a big deal for Prokick Australia. We wanted to give them our best guy available and Rossy was the best option, hands down.”
Prokick Australia
Prokick Australia was developed in 2007 with a mission to train, guide and transition Australian athletes to perform at the college and NFL level.
With a natural Aussie instinct of kicking a ball, Prokick Australia is widely respected in the United States for developing punters and kickers.
“With Prokick Australia, the kids do not do their own recruitment, nor do they know who we share their profile with,” Gleeson said. “No one is lucky to receive an offer — if they get one they accept. You won’t see any of the lads promoting their highlight film online — it’s all done quite discreetly.”
Coaching Jackson Ross
Dylan Moore, Harrison Jones, Jackson Ross and James Worpel of the Hawks hold their new guernsey numbers at the jumper number reveal during a Hawthorn Hawks AFL training session at Waverley Park on December 16, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
Throughout its history, Tennessee has fielded talented punters.
Gleeson believes Tennessee will continue its tradition with Ross.
“Tennessee is, in my opinion, Punter U,” he said. “Some of the best punters have come out of Knoxville. He’ll carry on the tradition, no doubt.”
Ross trained holding field goal attempts and punting under Gleeson.
“We would run field goal simulations under a countdown clock, where 11 players (or sometimes 10) would run out while one of our kickers would kick,” Gleeson said. “It’s obviously a critical part of the game as the holder must keep calm, count players, deal with external noise, communicate with the kicker, and execute the hold.
“Punting-wise, he’s very natural and picked up the spiral punt very quickly. A lot of Aussie rules guys we see have a tendency to create torque with their hips and throw the ball down instead of float it up. It’s a complete different style of kicking to Aussie rules, so we effectively have to eliminate 18 years of muscle memory, but he didn’t really have any (bodily) mechanical floors. To touch on the punting aspect, he will allow coaches to be flexible with their calls. Spirals left and right, roll out spirals, roll out right kick right (high and low), roll right kick left (low). Roll left kick left, right etc.”
A 2022 Australian punter commits to Tennessee football.
2022 punter Jackson Ross has committed to Tennessee.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Ross is from Prokick Australia in Melbourne, Australia.
“I am honored to announce that I have committed to study and play football at the University of Tennessee on full scholarship,” Ross announced.
About Prokick Australia
Prokick Australia was developed in 2007 to train, guide and transition Australian athletes to perform at the College/NFL level. With our natural Aussie instinct of kicking a ball, we have developed a successful program to enable this.
Prokick Australia is widely respected in the USA for developing punters and kickers, which has US coaches demanding more and more players from our program. Coaches don’t just ask for any Australian punter, they ask for Prokick Australian Punters, something we are super proud of.
Our mission is to get you educated at a US College and we promise that you will learn, laugh and sweat if you are invited into the Prokick Australia program. – Nathan Chapman and John Smith
