The legacy of Punter U takes another twist for Tennessee football. With Paxton Brooks entering his final year of eligibility, Josh Heupel has gone overseas to find his replacement for the future, looking specifically for guys with power who have experience drop-kicking in other sports.
That led him to Jackson Ross. A 2022 prospect out of Melbourne, Australia, Ross has committed to the Vols. According to Eric Cain of VolQuest, he comes form a program called ProKick that trains athletes in Australia to kick an American football.
Ross will have four years of eligibility and will be in line to compete for the starting job once Brooks is gone in 2023. He announced his decision to commit to Tennessee football Friday evening on Twitter.
I am honoured to announce that I have committed to study and play football at The University of Tennessee on full scholarship.
— Jackson Ross (@_JacksonRoss) June 10, 2022
I appreciate all the support, in particular from @ProkickAus, @JohnnyPKA and @tglees.@Vol_Football @coachjoshheupel @CoachEkelerUT #GBO #GoVols 🍊 pic.twitter.com/RjGHl59BhA
Obviously, the Vols have a deep history of successful punters. It’s not just the Colquitt family, although they have produced four elite punters, three of whom had long-term NFL careers. Anyway, Michael Palardy, Trevor Daniel and Matt Darr have all recently added to that legacy.
It only made sense for the Vols to eventually find talent from overseas to continue this tradition. Cain reports that Ross’ experience comes from playing rugby, which is big in Australia. Transitioning those abilities to punting shouldn’t be too hard.
Two NFL punters came from the ProKick program, Jordan Berry of the Minnesota Vikings and Arryn Siposs of the Philadelphia Eagles. There are numerous punters throughout the college game who have also come through the system.
In addition to Ross, the Vols will have Kolby Morgan on their roster as a redshirt sophomore next year too, so there will be a decent level of competition for the starting job. Toby Wilson and J.T. Carver will be in the system as place kickers.
Given Josh Heupel’s system, accuracy is more important for Tennessee football than power when it comes to punters, as the Vols will likely move the ball even on possessions they don’t score. However, rugby should provide the experience to do that as well, so Ross is a big pickup all the way around.