Maybe he doesn’t add another preseason honor every day but it almost seems that way for Kentucky punter Max Duffy and he was named to the ESPN Preseason All-America team, his seventh All-America honor of the preseason, on Tuesday. According to UK sports information, Duffy has also been named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press, Athlon Sports, CBS Sports, Phil Steele’s College Football, Sporting News, and Walter Camp. It’s a list too long for me to remember and how often has that ever happened with a UK football player.
He led the nation in net punting with a 44.55-yard average last year and Duffy also led the nation in punting at 48.10 yards per punt. That’s why he won the Ray Guy Award given to the nation’s top punter and was named All-American by 10 different organizations.
What makes this so remarkable is Duffy’s recruiting story. That’s one I won’t forget and can still remember when he explained it all to me the first time a few years ago. He grew up playing basketball and soccer in Australia before switching to Australian Rules Football at age 15.
He was working as a tree lopper — “I cut down trees with a bunch of friends I played football with” — while playing in the West Australian Football League before being picked in the 2012 Australian Football League draft. Shoulder and hamstring injuries limited his play in 2013 and 2014 and when he was finally cut from the league, he signed with Prokick Australia, moved across the country from Perth to Melbourne to train, and eventually came to the United States after four months of training as a punter to try out for college teams.
He punted at Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee for coaches and scouts. He sat in Alabama coach Nick Saban’s office and said it was “really cool” even though he didn’t get a scholarship offer.
What I loved even more was his prior knowledge of Alabama football.
“At the time, I did not really know that much about Alabama football. I was still just getting the hang of punting,” Duffy said. “It ended up being nine months until I actually got my first offer after I started punting. It felt pretty natural but it took a bit of time to get used to the spiral (of the football) and wearing pads and a helmet that is really heavy. I also had to learn about the rush (from the defense) and what the rules were.”
He learned so well that he got an offer from Kentucky and through his agreement with Prokick that mandated he take his first “suitable” offer, he became a Wildcat knowing very little about the program or city.
“I had never even seen snow before but Lexington is an awesome city,” Duffy said during our first interview. “It kind of feels like a small country town back home without a lot of the traffic. There is a lot to do and the city really gets behind the team. I have loved every minute of it.”
