Football 🏈 How a rainy tryout took James Burnip from Australia to Alabama

Tony_Tsoukalas · Wednesday at 3:16 PM

How a rainy tryout took James Burnip from Australia to Alabama

James Burnip never thought a rainy tryout would take him halfway across the world to Alabama.

alabama.rivals.com

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — James Burnip’s global journey has humble Aussie roots. Before the Alabama punter made a name for himself by sending balls into the stratosphere of college football's biggest cathedrals, he had to brave a rain-soaked rugby pitch in Australia’s Box Hill, Victoria.

Burnip is the only player on Alabama’s roster who didn’t grow up dreaming of playing football — at least not the American variety. His only exposure to the sport came on Monday mornings when televised NFL games would serve as background noise during breakfast before school.

Instead, Burnip grew up playing Australian rules football, a sport that resembles a mixture of basketball, rugby and soccer. Until 2019, he’d never punted an American football. That changed during a post-practice kickaround with teammate Jack Martin, who had just committed to Ohio University on a football scholarship.

“I saw him punt a few footballs, and I thought I should give that a try,” Burnip recalled. “I was like, ‘I reckon I could do that pretty easily.’ Obviously, it’s a lot harder than it looks.”

Still, when Burnip sets his mind toward something he doesn’t stop. That’s how he found himself standing on a cold and sloppy rugby pitch for a $100 tryout that ultimately changed the trajectory of his life.

“Terrible field, terrible, terrible field,” Burnip said with a laugh while recalling his initial tryout with Prokick Australia, a program that has produced eight of the last 11 Ray Guy Award winners, transforming Australian rules footballers into premium punters. “It was like the middle of winter in Australia, so it might have been 4 degrees Celcius, 40-something degrees Fahrenheit. And the field was pretty much mud. You’d kick the ball, and it would just plop. It wouldn’t go anywhere, wouldn’t bounce anywhere, just slop in the ground.”

That didn’t matter to Nathan Chapman, who instructed Burnip to kick the ball as high as he could. Roughly 4.7 seconds and one towering punt later, Chapman knew he had something he could work with.

“He got up around a 4.7 [hangtime], and it was like, Okay, I've seen it,” Chapman recalled. “You do that with your first kick, we go, ‘Oh yeah, we’re fine. We don’t need to kick another ball. From there it was just about coaching the technique and the mechanics that he that we needed to put into him.

“It was like, Okay, let's get him in the gym. Let's make him train like a professional. Let's work on his craft. And then once he gets it, it's going to be pretty impressive. In our eyes, it felt like a no-brainer.”

From there, the newly-aspiring punter received an instant crash course in American football. Burnip was accepted into Prokick Australia three days before the program was set to tour America. He had recently finished high school and had been working to save up enough money to travel Europe for a gap year before heading to college. Instead, he used the extra cash to fund what would soon become his future.

Burnip’s two-week tour included stops at several schools across the States, including Southern California and UCLA as well as a dip into the Deep South at Memphis, LSU and Vanderbilt.

“When I realized just the magnitude of it, how big it was, just sort of the lifestyle of college, it definitely piqued my interest,” Burnip said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to do this.’”

A change in plans

The recruitment process is far less glamorous for Australian punter hopefuls. Instead of having college programs pamper them on official visits, members of Prokick Australia sit back and wait as Chapman and company play matchmaker.

“They don’t really tell you anything,” Burnip said. “It’s kind of an exciting little game. You never know where anyone’s going. Then one day a coach will follow you on Instagram, and you’re like ‘I guess I’m going here.’”

Once prospective punters are deemed viable prospects, their film gets put in the store window and sent to various college coaches. From there, Chapman describes the process as something like ordering a pizza.

“You tell us what you think you want to do, and we’ll deliver that product,” he explained to Rivals back in 2021.

For Burnip, Ole Miss was the first team to place an order. Burnip committed to the Rebels in January of 2021. His knowledge of Ole Miss was comprised of watching the movie The Blind Side and tuning in to the Rebels’ 63-48 loss to Alabama the year before. Nevertheless, the prospect of playing SEC ball under a charismatic coach in Lane Kiffin was intriguing.

That was until Ole Miss punter Mac Brown elected to return for an extra year of eligibility, throwing a wrench in Burnips plans. Brown’s decision led to the Rebels offering Burnip a three-year scholarship beginning in the 2022 season. Fortunately, Alabama came into the picture shortly after, offering a four-year plan in which Burnip would see the field immediately.

The Tide’s interest in Burnip was sparked by former special teams analyst Johnathan Galante, who used Prokick Australia to bring Oscar Bradburn to Virginia Tech in 2017. While Galante didn’t request Burnip directly, Chapman saw the big-legged punter as the perfect fit for what Nick Saban was asking for at the moment.

From there, it wasn’t hard to sell Burnip on the Tide

“It was like mid-to-late April or the start of May when Alabama coaches connected back with me,” Burnip recalled. “They were like, ‘Hey we want to get you on the phone with Saban. He’s going to offer you a scholarship. He wants you here in like two weeks.’ I was like, ‘OK, let’s go.’”

Saban Zoom calls and climbing over trees

While Burnip knew an Alabama offer was coming, receiving the official word from Saban required a bit of extra leg work — literally.

Burnip’s home back in Mount Macedon, Victoria sits on top of a mountain. There’s one way in and one way out with no exceptions. That made life difficult when a hurricane-level storm left Burnip and his family without power a couple days before his scheduled Zoom call with Saban. Along with wiping out internet connection, the storm downed several 50-foot gum trees, blocking any way out by car.

Burnip’s Zoom call with Saban was scheduled for 4 a.m. local time. Originally his family’s plan was to wake up at 2 a.m. and drive 20 minutes down the road to his sister’s house which still had power. However, upon seeing their driveway barricaded with debris, the Burnips had to call an audible.

“We’re like, screw it, we’re going to have to walk down ourselves,” Burnip said. “We all put backpacks on and hiked down the road, climbing over these big trees, walking two and a half miles down a hill to where my sister could pick us up in her car.”

Fortunately, the Burnips are fast walkers. The family was able to make the trek in time to comfortably set up the interview with Saban. From there, meeting the head coach was the least stressful part of the busy morning.

Looking back, Burnip chuckles at the casual nature of his conversation with Saban. While he was aware of Alabama’s success, he and his family didn’t quite grasp the head coach’s legendary status at the time.

“I would love to talk to him and ask him like, ‘What was that first conversation like when we first got on that Zoom call?’” Burnip said. “My mom and dad had no clue who he was. I had little to no clue. We were just having a general conversation.”

As promised, the chat included an Alabama offer which Burnip accepted, flipping his commitment from Ole Miss to the Tide on June 13, 2021.

“I was excited,” Burnip said. “Once I got the call and the scholarship I was excited to leave and couldn’t wait to get started.”

A whole new world

Changing hemispheres comes with complications, especially during the aftermath of COVID-19. Due to lockdown restrictions, Burnip’s family wasn’t able to help him get set up in Tuscaloosa.

The 17-hour time difference made communication back home a challenge and also threw off the punter’s sleep schedule for his first two weeks on campus. On top of that, Burnip joined the team in July, trading an Australian winter for the grueling Alabama heat.
Then there were the cultural differences.

Burnip was thrown for a loop when the waiter brought out an appetizer of fried pickles during his first meal in Alabama. Simple communication also required a bit of patience as his Australian accent often clashed with the local southern twang.

“It would go both ways,” Burnip recalled during an interview with Yea Alabama. “I would be talking to people and I’d be like ‘I don’t know what you’re saying. You’re going to have to repeat that and repeat it and repeat it.”

Of course, he’s received plenty of teasing from his teammates as well.

“I never noticed how I say ‘no’ until Will [Reichard] was driving me back to the airport my sophomore year,” Burnip said. “He goes, ‘You know, you pronounce an R after your nos?’ I was like, ‘Naur I don’t.’ And then I stopped and was like, ‘Oh no. I do.’ Now every time I say it, I hear it.”

Early on, transportation was a bit of an issue as well. Working to get his American driver’s license, Burnip would bargain with teammates to let him take the wheel on short trips back from the football facility and to the store. Those requests were often met with apprehension given the Australian’s habit of driving on the left side of the road.

“There were a few times, I think I was driving in Kneeland [Hibbet’s] car, and I was pulling out of a gas station, and I’m driving down the wrong side of the road,” Burnip said. “I’m driving, and everyone starts freaking out. I was like, ‘Oh shoot!’ I quickly got back in the right lane. It wasn’t anything dangerous, but it was kind of funny.”

With the help of current long snapper Kneeland Hibbett and former Alabama kicker Will Reichard, Burnip eventually found his footing on American soil. He now drives himself around and is better about staying on the right side of the road. He's even developed a love for barbecue ribs.

Still, he makes sure to put in requests for Vegemite, Tim Tams and some of his other favorite snacks every time his family pays him a visit.

Burnips on tour

It’s going to take more than a 17-hour time difference to break up the Burnips. Whether it's waking up in the early hours of the morning back in Australia or enduring the nearly 24-hour plane trips from Melbourne to Alabama, Mark and Lynda Burnip haven’t missed watching their son take the field once since he went away for college.

"We're very lucky that we've got a very close-knit family,” Mark said. “James is very close to his two older sisters as well, and we all talk regularly while he’s away. That support network is really strong, and it helps give James the grounding and a nice comfort level. He knows if he needs to chat or bounce something off us, one of us is always around.”

Usually, a few days don’t go by without James checking in back home. However, this fall he’s been able to take in the majority of his senior season with his family by his side.

After retiring this year, Mark decided to take his family on a pair of U.S. tours this fall, attending Alabama’s games on the weekends while vacationing across the country during the week. The family was present for the Tide’s first four games of the season before heading back to Australia for the month of October. This month, they returned in time for the trip to LSU and plan to follow their son throughout the rest of Alabama’s season.

That includes this weekend’s Iron Bowl, as they’ll be a part of James’ Senior Day ceremony for his last game in Bryant Denny Stadium.

“It still continues to be a really surreal experience,” Mark said. “You know, to see our little boy running around on the ground, it’s just unbelievable. Every now and then we sort of pinch ourselves to think that someone from little old Australia is there sort of doing his bit for the Alabama football team. It's been four years of fantastic experience that we're just so proud and so thrilled that he's been able to experience that.”

Continuing the dream

This might still seem like a dream to Mark and Linda, but their son’s future in football is becoming more and more of a reality.

James was named a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award this season and has averaged 45.09 yards on 45 punts through 11 games. He’s booted 17 of those balls 50 yards or more and has pinned Alabama’s opponent inside the 20-yard line on 16 occasions. Those punts have hung up long enough in the air long enough to help Alabama lead the nation, allowing just 0.71 yards per return.

“He’s the best punter I’ve had,” Alabama special teams coach Jay Nunez said. “He has a chance to accomplish every goal he’s set out for his whole journey. He’s going to play a long time on Sundays.”

NFL punting jobs are a rarity as teams generally hold just one punter on their active roster at one time.

Iowa’s Tory Taylor, a former Prokick Australia product, was the lone punter taken in this year’s draft, as the Chicago Bears selected him in the fourth round.
Three punters were taken during the 2023 draft, while four were selected in 2022. With seven of his punters currently in the NFL, Chapman is fairly confident James will have the opportunity to add his name to the list next spring.

“That’s why we put him in Alabama,” Chapman said. “We train lots of guys, but we don’t put everyone with Nick Saban and Alabama. James was always someone who had the potential to succeed and go on to the next level, and we wanted to give him that stage to display his ability.

“He has certainly got the leg. He's worked really hard, especially the last two years, two seasons. He's really developed his professionalism and maturity in it. He knows he belongs, and he'll have every opportunity to kick well in front of scouts. And then, and then, there's the gold egg, right? Who knows? You only need one person to like you.”

Regardless of whether James hears his name called next spring, it’s been quite the ride since that rainy tryout five years ago.

“I was the first kid in the area of my town to go play college football,” Burnip said. “It’s crazy, now there are a bunch of younger kids who text me and tell me they want to do what I’m doing. It’s cool to think I helped create this sort of pipeline from Mount Macedon to college football in America.”

KT_Tide_2020 · Thursday at 11:37 AM