‘I’ll Do Anything for This Team’: Australian Punter Lachie Pozzobon Embracing What It Means to Be a Cowboy

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State’s new punter didn’t grow up dreaming of playing college football in Stillwater, or anywhere really.

​“Grew up in Australia, obviously, wanted to be an Australian football player,” Lachie Pozzobon said. “I’ll be honest with you, American football to me was a bit foreign. Saw it in a few movies. I knew about the helmets and the pads.”

​Pozzobon’s journey to Oklahoma State started when he saw a Prokick ad on Instagram recruiting Australians to learn how to become punters in the United States.

​“As soon as I went down to that first trial session, I knew that was for me,” Pozzobon said. “And kicking a ball has always been my favorite thing.”

​Pozzobon has been kicking since he was 3 or 4. Although the ball was slightly different, he’s gotten comfortable with the new shape.

As a freshman last season at FCS team Stephen F. Austin, Pozzobon punted 53 times for an average of 41.8 yards per punt. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the 34th punter at either the FBS or FCS level with a grade of 75.9. For context, Wes Pahl ranked two spots higher with a grade of 77.2.

“Pozz has been phenomenal,” coach Eric Morris said. “As good of a camp as a punter I’ve been around. Really good spirals, really good drop punts. I think we can throw an arsenal of different varieties of punts at people.”

Opponents returned only 34% of his punts last season, and only 20 punters with higher grades finished with a lower return percentage. When opponents did return his kicks, they averaged 3.8 yards per return. That puts Pozzobon 24th in the nation.

“They are almost trick shot guys,” special teams coordinator Drew Svoboda said of Pozzobon and other Australian punters. “Gone are the days where you just stand back there and boom it. They have to understand how much hangtime we want on a punt for it to be fair caught when we don’t want it returned. It’s not just about standing back there and getting it off.”

Eric Morris echoed the coordinator earlier this week and praised Pozzobon’s performance last week when the Cowboys practiced some less-than-ideal situations for a punter backed up.

“Just to watch the placement that he had on these balls and backed up, how fast he could get him out,” Morris said. “Super flexible, he can run right, punt left. He can run left, punt right. … So there’s some crazy ones that we’re going to pull out at some point.”

Morris mentioned the “Boomerang” being one of those unique kicks Pozzobon can break out. The Australian said his friends back home would recognize it as “Banana.”

“It sort of goes up one way, but comes down a different way,” Pozzobon said. “So it’s sort of, yeah, it’s really good for confusing the returner. So hopefully we can bring a few of them out this year.”

Although a lot of his experiences playing Australian Rules Football growing up translate, there are still a lot of huge differences between the two sports, as Morris found out during his first year as a head coach.

“You might have about 20 to sometimes 30 punts a game,” Pozzobon said of Australian Rules. “Not as much hang time. Some of them aren’t as long, almost like a quarterback. So you want to sort of place it in your teammates’ arms. So I’d say the number one thing also would be room for error. So in Australian football, you could sort of get away with one bad kick here and there, whereas obviously with American football, your room for error is very slim. So yeah, I’d say that’s probably the biggest difference.”

Pozzobon grew up in Melbourne, which has a population somewhere between 4.9 and 5.4 million people depending on where you define the city limits. Obviously, that’s a few more people than live in Stillwater, so it’s not a huge surprise that Pozzobon said the differences between that huge city and his new home have been a big culture change.

He also misses fish ‘n chips and meat pies from back home, but Pozzobon has enjoyed discovering chicken fried steak here in America.

“He maybe has one of the best personalities on this team,” Morris said. “And I think, naturally, our kids are drawn to his accent and the way certain things sound when he pronounces things. Obviously he’s got the mustache, he’s got the mullet. I mean, he’s got the whole persona of just an Australian punter. I think he becomes more and more Americanized every single day. I think he loves Stillwater, and he loves the culture over here. So, it’s been fun to watch him try to grow with the rest of his teammates here.”

When he entered the transfer portal, Pozzobon said he told his agent he wanted to play for a school that really wanted him. That was his top priority.

Although he didn’t grow up wearing America’s Brightest Orange, it’s safe to say he’s embraced his new identity as a Cowboy now.

“One hundred percent, I’ll do anything for this team,” Pozzobon said. “I’ll run through a brick wall. So, whatever, whatever challenge ahead.”