The Bruins’ punter, averaging 43.7 yards per boot, is another in a wave of Aussies finding success going from Australian rules football to college football.
What they do have in common is that the Huskers and Bruins now share a conference – facing each other in Big Ten play for the second time in two seasons Saturday – and boast social media-popular quarterbacks in Dylan Raiola and Nico Iamaleava, respectively.
Instead, Saturday will be a battle between the boots from down under. Yes, Australia. Meet UCLA punter Will Karoll, the junior Tulane transfer from the Sydney suburb of Mosman. Two weeks ago against Indiana, Karoll recorded a 63-yard punt against the Hoosiers. Against Maryland, the former All-AAC honorable mention punter had a 61-yard punt, one of his five punts of 50 or more yards this season. In 2025, Karoll has averaged 43.7 yards per punt. At Tulane, he averaged 43.3 yards per punt across two seasons and had a career-long 78-yard punt. Karoll began the season on the Ray Guy Award watchlist for the best punter in the country. “I’d say I’ve never seen anybody work as much as Will, to be honest with you,” said redshirt junior long snapper Salem Abdul-Wahab, who is also Karoll’s roommate. “I’ve heard a lot of stories about , they work very hard over there, and it holds true with Will. Since he’s gotten here, he’s just been ripping punts all day, every day.” Nebraska, on the other hand, will be bringing Archie Wilson to the fight, a true freshman from the Melbourne suburb of Frankston South. Wilson has averaged 40.3 yards per punt across eight games, with his career long reaching 58 yards. For good measure, the Bruins’ backup punter, Lennox Miller, went to Oaks Christian High, but is also Australian; he was born in Melbourne but grew up in Sydney. “Lenny and I are really, really close, and it’s great to have another Australian,” Karoll said. “I think there are a lot of things that we talk about from home, growing up.” Karoll, in his third season playing college football in the United States, has the experience edge over both his counterparts. For Wilson, it’s his first time away from home as he settles into his first season playing American football. In one of Nebraska’s preseason August press conferences, Wilson was moved to tears over the difficulties of being more than 10,000 miles away from his family. “That part is hard,” he told reporters before the season began. “I have two little brothers, and a mom and a dad, and that’s the tough part about being here. I love them a lot and I miss them.”Unlike the often humid New Orleans days, where Karoll spent his first two years with the Green Wave, the sunny Southern California weather is comparable to the comfortable climate of Sydney.Sixty Aussies are on American college football teams in the 2025-2026 season, according to The Courier Mail, a Brisbane newspaper. Many Australians – most of whom trained through Prokick Australia, a program that launched in 2007 that trains athletes to play American football – now appear on college football rosters. For example, Wade Lees, who punted at UCLA in 2019 at the age of 31, trained with Prokick after coming from an Australian rules football background before starting his NCAA career at Maryland. Karoll credits Prokick, founded by former Australian Football League player Nathan Chapman, who briefly played for the Green Bay Packers in the 2004 preseason, as a “great experience” to learn from former NFL players who have made the jump from Australia to the United States. Eight Australians have won the Ray Guy Award, most recently Iowa’s Tory Taylor in 2023, who arrived at the Hawkeyes at the recommendation of Prokick, according to Fox Sports. Taylor now plays for the Chicago Bears after being selected in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft.Karoll says it comes down to what sports kids play when they’re younger. “We grow up the same way as you guys – sports are a big part of our lives,” Karoll said. “Your sports are throwing-based, but all our sports are pretty much kicking-based. … Since as long as I can remember, I’ve been kicking the ball.” Karoll added: “You guys throw the ball; your parents, uncles, friends, like us, kicking the ball. That’s just where it sort of came in the love for the game when I was a young kid.” Karoll played rugby for a dozen years, growing up rooting for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League. Miller’s father, Brad Miller, was an Australian Football League star in the mid-2000s, even leading the Melbourne Football Club in goals in 2008. Nebraska’s Wilson played Australian rules football for Haileybury College in Melbourne as a defender. They may say petrol instead of gasoline, and other local language differences, but they breathe football the same as their teammates. “I have a terrible Australian accent,” said Abdul-Wahab, the Bruins’ long snapper from Summit High in Fontana. “I try to talk to them in an Australian accent as much as I can. … There’s for sure, a couple of bad words in there too, that I never heard in my life.”Prop. 50 results: California overwhelmingly approves redistricting planSee the Prop. 50 election results for every county in CaliforniaIt’s Election Day. Here’s what’s at stake in LA County as voters decide on Proposition 50Man shot, wounded by police in Northridge had allegedly held girlfriend hostageDodgers celebrate 2025 World Series with parade, rally — and look forward to possible three-peat
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