At 28, Hutton ready for challenge at OSU
When Tom Hutton first considered exploring the growing opportunities for Australians in American college football, he thought he was too old.
He was 23 years old then.
Five years later, Hutton is preparing to leave his Australian hometown of Newborough for Stillwater. Last week, just a couple months ahead of his 29th birthday, he signed his letter of intent to accept a scholarship from Oklahoma State as a punter.
“A couple years ago, I heard about a guy from our local area who was 38 and he got a punting scholarship to a smaller school over there through ProKick Australia,” Hutton told The Oklahoman. “Then I thought it might be worth having a chat with them and see what they can do.
“I was lucky that I had done all of my high school and done all the right subjects. It just fell into place from there.”
Hutton will have the opportunity to grab the starting job and run with it, following the graduation of both Zach Sinor and Matt Hockett, the only players to punt for OSU the last two seasons.
Hardly anything about Hutton’s story aligns with the typical incoming freshman. He’s 28, married and nearly 10 years into a construction career. Two years ago, he landed a good job at a local paper mill, where he works machines for 12 hours a day, four days a week.
Hutton lives in a small town about two hours east of Pro Kick Australia’ s facility in Melbourne. He makes the drive three times a week to train with the coaches. It wasn’t Santa that OSU coach Mike Gundy asked for an Australian punter, but he certainly had one on his wish list. The request came in October 2017, after watching Texas’ Australian punter, Michael Dickson, boom 11 punts for an average of 50.9 yards in a game OSU won 13-10 in overtime.
“When we left the field at Texas, I said, ‘I don’t care what we have to do. I need one of those guys,’” Gundy said of his conversation with then-special teams coordinator Steve Hauser, who got in contact with ProKick Australia.
The organization, run by John A. Smith and Nathan Chapman, specializes in finding the country’s best kickers in Australian rules football and rugby who are interested in earning a college degree in the U.S. They train the kickers, prepare them for life in the U.S. and work to connect them with a college that will be a good fit for both parties.
“When Tom first came in, we recognized he could boot it a long way,” Chapman said. “When we’re gonna talk to a big school, we know we need to go in there with some elite talent. “Part of our program is we find the right guy, we select the right school, we know what they’re going to go into academically and we try to make that work. Rather than pushing the film out and letting anybody have a look at him, we select the schools out of the ones that have shown interest.”
Another part of the process is to find a place where a player’s overseas transition is smooth.
“They’re sort of in the country at Oklahoma State,” Chapman said. “Tom’s a good bloke. He’s a country lad. Oklahoma State lines up with what he wants to do with his education. So it seems like it will be a good fit.”
Maybe not Hutton’s first pick, but an ideal match.
“Hawaii was my first choice,” he joked. “Then they said Oklahoma State had come calling. It literally took me probably 10 minutes to look up Stillwater and Oklahoma, and it just seemed like a perfect fit.
“It’s a short drive down to the main city. It’s a country town and there’s not a heap of traffic, which is good. It just seemed to fit.”
He’s thrilled for the opportunity to compete at a high level. Hutton has played Aussie rules football since he was 9 years old.
“It’s always been a goal of mine to get into a major sporting environment,” he said. “There’s two things I’ve always been good at in Aussie rules, and that was kicking the ball a long way, and running. And I hate running.”
Hutton still has some learning to do about American football. He gets ESPN on cable television, so he can catch an occasional NFL game and plenty of college ball.
“I know most of the game, but the penalties and the intricacies of the game I’m still not completely up on,” Hutton said. “But I guess as long as I know where I come on and do my bit, that’s all that really matters.”