Geelong punter scores berth in first US bowl game
AMERICAN College Football post-season is coming to an end, with 40 bowl games concluding with the national championship game on January 8.
There are 78 bowl spots available at the highest level in the United States, organised by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
This year has seen 22 Australians feature in 19 top division college bowls, which is just like making a grand final in Australia.
Geelong’s history in American college football continues with punting cousins Cameron Johnston and Michael SleepDalton.
Johnston played in four bowls and won the first College Football National Championship in 2015. He encouraged Sleep-Dalton to train with Prokick Australia to learn the skills of punting and it has paid off.
Sleep-Dalton will compete in his first bowl game this weekend, punting for the Arizona State University “Sun Devils” of the Pac 12 Conference.
He will be taking on the North Carolina State University “Wolfpack” from Atlantic Coast Conference at the Sun Bowl in Texas today.
The game will be the last for Sun Devils’ coach Todd Graham after six years.
Herm Edwards Jr., a profootball analyst on NFL Live since 2009, will take over as head coach this year.
Edwards was a 10-season NFL player at Eagles, Falcons and Rams, and was head coach at the New York Jets from 2001 to 2005.
He signed Geelong’s Ben Graham, who became the oldest rookie ever to be part of a NFL season-opening game at age 31, in 2005.
Edwards was also the head coach at the Kansas City Chiefs from 2006 to 2008.
“It will be good to send coach Graham off with a win, then start a new chapter next year,” Sleep-Dalton said.
He said he had not been getting advice from his experienced cousin Johnston in the lead up to the big day.
“Not really, (it’s) just another game.
“(I) prepare each game the same, no matter what game it is,” he said.
The unranked Sun Devils were invited to play against the Wolfpack, ranked 24 out of 130.
Sleep-Dalton said he was “looking forward to another game” and would have local support in the 50,000-crowd with his girlfriend and her sister in the stands.