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Thanks for downloading this episode of the jock to jock podcast presented by rock 108 and sponsored by I'm on communications
Experience the I'm on difference.
I'm Brian Marshall.
I'll be joined by Tori Taylor number nine your punter for the Iowa football team next
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Well, it's jock to
jock rock 108 podcast and we're at season number two.
I'm Brian Marshall and I'm joined by my guest last season.
We had Jordan Bohanan from the Iowa basketball team.
Now this year we've got somebody from the Iowa football team.
And as we're leading into Iowa football season,
Tori Taylor, the punter for the Iowa football team number nine joins me.
Yeah.
Thanks very much for having me on.
I'm really looking forward to it.
And yeah, G'day to all the Hawkeye fans out
there.
I wanted to have you on from day one.
And there's a couple of reasons why.
Some of the accolades that you've received so far this year.
But the fact of the matter is we don't hear a lot from somebody that's in the position that you're at on a football team.
And then you've got a unique story as well.
Tell me a little bit about growing up where you were at in Australia.
Yeah.
So I grew up in a, um, oh, about 45 minutes south of Melbourne, um, just so long as called the Mornington Peninsula.
And yeah, I had a great upbringing.
Um, obviously two parents and I've got three brothers, one older, two younger.
So yeah, we, we all played sport and, um, my youngest now, he's really, um, be into a sport as well.
So we all grew up playing the shown rules football.
And then, um, I kind of stopped playing.
probably from the ages 15 to 18, just because I wasn't really enjoying it anymore.
And then, yeah, I started playing football again, but then I joined, I got in conversation with Nathan Chapman, who runs Pro Kick Australia back home in Melbourne.
And yeah, I just said that I was interested in coming over and playing college football.
And then yes, I went down for a try and yeah, Colin just went from there and yeah, here I am.
Australian rules football is not like we know football here in the United States.
Would you mind explaining it a little bit?
I mean, it's kind of hard to explain without seeing it, but it's it's a hell of a sport.
I usually just tell people we'll go watch it on YouTube or something like that, because then they get a better understanding of it.
But it's really just a big oval shaped field with a set of goal posts and a set of behind posts.
And at six points, if you get it through the big sticks and one point, if you get it through the smaller ones to the left or right, and you really just punt the ball around trying to get it.
um through the goals um that's just in simple terms but kind of like I said if people uh yeah it took the time to yeah just watch it for a couple minutes it'd probably get a greater understanding.
There's 18 teams that play professionally in the AFL right?
Correct.
Was there any particular team that you followed or were a part of?
Yeah I followed a team called the Richmond Tigers which funnily enough um they're actually yellow and black so so pretty much the same as the whole course uh yeah saying my team win
three championships in the last five years.
So, yeah, it was pretty stuck to that because it was certainly a lot of not so great times before that.
I followed them since I was probably three or four years of age.
So, yeah, I've been following them for quite a while now.
So, sports, as we know it here in the States, it's a lot of baseball, it's basketball, it's hockey, it's, you know, American style football.
In Australia, is it Australian rules football?
what we call soccer.
What else is
watch?
There's a Australian football, soccer, cricket.
A lot of people watch the American sports over here back home.
Yeah, a Australian football and cricket are the two big sports in Australia.
So when you got involved with college football and coming over to Iowa, and I do want to talk about how you got involved at Iowa, what did your family think about that whole transition and coming over to the States for that?
Oh, they were obviously really excited for me.
It was really just a big opportunity.
And they knew that it was going to open a lot of doors for me, not even really from a football point of view, but just a life point of view, really.
Yeah, mum probably took it a little bit harder than dad.
But yeah, it was also one of those things that, yeah, kind of like I said, they were all really excited for me.
They knew it was going to be hard for me.
I knew it was going to be hard.
COVID probably didn't help.
But yeah, here I am and they'll be here next week.
So really looking forward to that.
They're coming
to watch you play.
Yeah, for Iowa State.
And they haven't had a chance to see you play American style football yet.
Yeah, that's correct.
I just turn on the TV back home in Australia and watch it.
So yeah, this will be the first time.
Does Iowa State compare to anything that you were used to previous?
No.
No, it was an absolute circus when we went and played there last week, last year.
Is it fun to be back in front of, of front of fans again?
Yeah, well, I didn't, my first, my freshman year, I didn't really know any difference.
So, um, playing in front of no fans, like that's all I really knew.
So it wasn't really that big of a deal to me.
But then, yeah, last year having the fans back was, was great, especially that home environment.
But I really enjoyed playing, um, the away games as well.
Uh, like I was state Nebraska.
obviously Wisconsin didn't go the way we wanted to, but playing at Maryland was fun for a half and then the 95% of the crowd had left.
But yeah, the way games are just as fun as the home games, in my opinion, depending where you play.
You were talking about that organization that you got involved with in Australia.
Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Yeah, so Pro Geek Australia is really just a program that transitions guys from
Australian rules football to college football punting.
Yeah, so Nathan Chapman probably started the organization or 12 or 13 years ago now and he's probably saved I think nearly 200 odd million in scholarship money.
So yeah, there's a lot of guys that have benefited from that over the years.
And yeah, there's really just been an influx of Aussie punters over here doing really the same as I'm doing just at different schools.
So yeah, really lucky that his guidance and
and what he does really just gets you ready for college football, which isn't easy.
Prepping for what you're doing as far as punting is the technique different, is how you prepare different.
How is that different from what you were doing before?
Well, first and foremost, the ball, the actual tangible object itself that you play with, there's a smaller sweet spot on the ball over here than it is back home.
So it's harder kicking the ball.
um, over here than it is back home.
But, um, yeah, they, they get you ready for that.
Obviously, as soon as you're doing the program, you're punting American footballs.
And it's really just, um, it's hard to simulate a rush and simulate a game, um, back home in Australia.
But yeah, we certainly did the, the best job we could.
And yeah, they, they really just get you ready from a mental, um, standpoint.
Cause really that's, that's what it is.
It's all upstairs and in the mind.
Like with your drills, I mean, how many times are you
kicking, you know, punting a ball per day, roughly
with that.
Oh, about a, probably like 60 or 70 times a day, four times a week, probably, yeah, sometimes more, sometimes less.
When did you know you had it?
Like it was, like it was on, let's make this happen.
I'd always been a relatively big kick of the football in general.
When you first joined, you hit them okay, then.
It kind of gets to that stage where you really got to take a few steps back and just really work on things and kind of hone in on things.
And then, yeah, it probably took a few months before I really started to get that consistency and start hitting the balls that I wanted to hit.
And I wasn't just fluking them.
How do you start to get the idea of the black and gold of the Iowa football team?
Oh, that came about in late 2019.
Yeah, I didn't really know much about Iowa at all.
I wouldn't say I was hesitant about it, but I'd never, like I said, I'd never heard of it.
Yeah, I kind of knew it was a place, but I never really heard much about the Hawkeye football program or anything like that.
But yeah, just got talking to the coaches and really just seemed like a good fit for me.
And I just thought, well, what have I got to lose?
I'll just do it.
And yeah, here I am, probably the best life decision I've ever made.
Is there any any place in Australia that kind of equals the climate of Iowa?
No,
not even close
not
even close Yeah, barely gets below probably 35
degrees crazy.
So then when when you have to deal with that for the first time, how are you feeling about that?
Yeah, I didn't I don't enjoy winter at all Yeah, that's just the honest truth.
I really don't I don't think anyone does yeah, I think like seeing snow and that
uh it was pretty cool but yeah that wears off the novelty of all that wears off pretty quickly and you get sick of it rather quickly but um yeah you just gotta you gotta deal with it just gotta do it don't have a choice
how often do you get back home
i'll go back once a year so i've been back twice uh since i since i got here so yeah i love it i love going back home i'll probably move back there when i'm when i'm done playing football whenever that'll be hopefully it's still a while down the track but
yeah yeah i'll probably go back there but that's the plan who knows it might happen or it might not happen just go to wait and see of course that bridge when i get to it
when you get back obviously you've got a bunch of friends and family that come back and see you do ozzie's have an american accent that they they fake
Because I know that Americans all the time try and fake an Australian accent and we don't do it.
Yeah,
I can do an American accent.
I'm not going to on this podcast.
I don't want to embarrass myself, but I can do it.
I can do one a lot better than what people here can do an Australian one.
But yeah, when you get back home, I mean, what's the first thing that you do?
You hang out with the family, you go out, have a couple of beers, what you do?
I
hang out with the family.
What I do this time, I went and got a coffee with my brother, actually.
On my first day back.
Yeah, just probably enjoyed the the food that I missed the most Whether it be chocolate or candy or yeah certain dinners and things like that But yeah, really just hanging out with friends and family that I only get to do for a few weeks of the year
Does your mom have a particular dish that she makes that you're really all about?
Yeah, she she does this like savory minced pie, which I really like and I love Past the carbonara as well
Yeah, she those are well those are my two favorite dishes, but then my dad well he cooks on the old occasion But yeah, he does a nice curry as well.
So obviously mom does more than dad But
so what's the plan when they they make it up for the Iowa State game?
You're gonna treat them to something that specific to Iowa City or what do you got in
mind?
I'm, yeah, I'm really not too sure.
I should probably start thinking about that.
But I know on game, I know on game day, they're going to do the whole tailgate thing, which is I've never experienced myself.
I probably ever will, but no, maybe one day.
Yeah, they're pretty excited for that.
And yeah, I'll just show them around, show them around the stadium, show them around the facility and all the buildings and school and things like that.
Yeah.
And just show them what I've been doing for the last couple of years.
So you're saying your family might be down for a game of flippy cup then?
Yeah, whatever that is.
My mom probably won't be interested in that but then my 12 year old brother obviously won't be but yeah, I'm sure that they're just excited to make the most of the experience while they're over here.
Does it make you smile?
Does it give you any butterflies that the swarm comes out to back in black by ACDC?
Yeah, this is a bit of a guilty admission.
I didn't actually know that ACDC was an Australian band until probably maybe
Oh, six months ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I really had no idea until, um, yeah, me dad back home told me.
I honestly
had no idea.
So you stepped foot onto the field for Iowa for the very first time.
What's your feelings?
Do you recall how you felt at that point?
Now you're on an American football field.
Now you're getting ready for game time.
How do you feel the first, uh, the first snap that you take and you're about ready to do what you do best?
Uh, during the game.
I'm like a pretty confident person when it when it comes to games just because I feel like you just have to be confident and there's no point um not believing in yourself or anything like that because it really just doesn't get you anywhere but yeah it's kind as silly as this sound that it might sound a bit cliche but it's all a bit of a blur really sometimes uh I just kind of run out to the field do my routine and
punt the ball and you're really on and off within 20-25 seconds so I think that's one thing that sometimes I'll tell others is like anyone can can concentrate and the fact that you really only got to do it for 20-25 seconds it's really not that difficult yeah there's a little bit of nerves like I'd be lying especially the first punt of the game just kind of getting that out of the way but then from there once the game gets going if I'm having a good day then yeah really want the ball in my hands but that's out of my control and
Sometimes I don't want it in my hands because I just want to win.
Right.
So what goes through your mind after you come off the field?
You've done your 20, 25 seconds out there.
You've done what you do best.
What goes through your head?
You're just, you know, okay, focused on what the team needs to do to win at that point?
Oh, I talked to my, the special teams coordinator coach Woods and we'll just talk who just feel like, oh, do you like that?
I was like, yeah, that's good.
Or if it's not the best partners like, yeah.
This is what happened by blah, I've talked to the long snapper, I'm just like, yeah, good snap, like we're all good.
If a gunner runs down and makes a play, I'm always making sure that I thank them as well, because there's so much more that goes into it than me just punting the ball, like there's guys hustling their ass running down there, trying to get in people's faces.
But it's all really just a bit of a blur sometimes.
But once I've kind of punted, defense is really, really good.
So it's always good to just sit down and watch those guys get to work.
So you're closer to the defense than you are the offense at that point, I guess?
Yeah, because when the offense is on the field, I'm off to the sideline, like in the corner, like doing my routine and things like that, just making sure I'm ticking all the boxes to be ready.
So I'm still like looking over at the game to see what's happening to make sure when I've got to be ready.
It's pretty strange sometimes because sometimes I feel like a quarter will go for an hour and then the second quarter will feel like it goes for five minutes.
Yeah, it's a strange game football.
But yeah, I'm usually just off to the sideline doing my thing.
But then when the defense is out there,
i'm not needed because i'm not needed until the offense gets the ball so i kind of just soak it in and enjoy it because i feel like yeah everyone's got that kid and then you have to
well and compared to australian rules football where there's constant motion there's yes correct but he's moving american style football is stop start stop start like you said it goes in very short bursts it's almost a chess match at that point yeah last year was your big year
3,688 yards on 80 punts.
And now you got Mel Kuiper from ESPN.
You're on his board as one of the top punters.
Does that resonate with you at all?
Or do you just kind of like that's whatever?
To be frank, I really couldn't give a shit about any of that stuff because I mean, that's just a matter of someone's opinion.
And I don't, I don't really know Mel.
I mean, someone sent me that just saying all good work, but I really don't pay attention to any of that stuff because
kind of like I said that's just one person's opinion
really
like that's literally just one individual's opinion um yeah they might be a little bit of credibility um behind it but I really don't try to pay too much attention to that yeah it's cool like obviously it gives you a degree of confidence but yeah I really don't pay too much attention to that because it's just really not that important and
kind of like I've said a few times, it's one person's opinion.
Someone might have me at the bottom of the list, you never know.
Well, I don't think a lot of people are going to have you at the bottom of the list after the year that you had last year.
Yeah, thank you.
What do you do right now at Iowa?
What's your focus?
What's your study?
You know, kind of going away off the field for just a minute.
Yeah, so I'm currently studying sports management.
I don't love school or anything like that, as I don't think anyone does.
um there's some courses that I think are a bit pointless but yeah that's just that's my opinion but
did you go to university previous when you were at
home no no so I took a gap between 2015 and 2020 so it was about a five-year period where I hadn't done any really much school work or anything like that thought about going to university but I don't know whether it's me or um I'm sure there's a lot of people out there no I really love school yeah they're on one of them
What are things that you're looking forward to this season?
I think like first and foremost, just to win as many games as we can, not get ahead of ourselves too much.
Going back to Indianapolis would be another great season and great accomplishment.
And that was just really just a fun weekend in general, regardless of the result.
Just a week leading up to it was great fun.
So it would be cool to go back there.
But in terms of personal goals, it's really just been the best pun I can be.
I know it sounds a bit boring, but I'm not really like, I don't have any like statistical goals or anything like that.
Like, yeah, it'd be great to win awards and things like that, but I really don't worry about that as long as I'm having fun and being the best punter and person I can be.
And yeah, not letting my team teammates down or coaches down.
That's the most important things to me.
And not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but being the best punter you can be, would that mean playing professionally?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, that's obviously a goal of one of
a goal of mine moving forward.
That's still a little while away, so I don't try to dwell on that too much.
But that's a goal and doing everything I can to get there.
Do you have any tips or advice for those younger kids that are wanting to get involved?
Hell, even as a punter?
Yeah, I think as a punter, I think one people are really going to understand is that no one cares about how good your big ball is.
It's all about how the gap between your good and your bad.
Um, cause it's all about consistency and you see a lot of guys, um, go to all these camps and yeah, it's great to get all these big balls out there.
But if there are any puns or key is listening, consistency is everything.
It's not a pissing contest.
Do you know what I mean?
So are you, you're not necessarily looking for the longest you're looking for putting that other team as far back in their territory as you possibly can, right?
Yeah, well, I think the biggest thing is you want someone that's reliable.
If you've got someone you can't trust and because there's so many guys out there that will blast a 60 yard on their next ball is 23 yards out of bounds.
Well, it's like you can't trust them.
It's like, what do I know?
Like what ball am I going to get this next punt?
Whereas if you have someone that's a little bit more consistent, doesn't have the biggest ball but knows what but you know what you're going to get.
Then yeah, I just think that's everything.
See.
Kids, he's telling you right now.
It's not about how big your balls are.
It's about how consistent with your balls.
Yes, exactly.
Spot
on.
You put that on a t-shirt for yourself.
All right.
So I thought we would wrap up our first edition of the jock to jock podcast.
I thought it kind of a fun little game would be the Marshall exchange program, meaning that if I came over to Australia, anything that you would teach me, one of the first things out the gate, as soon as I got off the plane, what would you teach me?
Well,
Pardon my friends.
Don't be a pussy and don't be scared of the snakes and spiders because they don't exist as much as people think.
So if I give one one bit of advice, just get out of your comfort zone and go and experience it all because it's not as bad as people think.
Why did they think that there are so many spiders?
It's just because I
really don't know.
I don't know where that's come from.
I really have no idea where I live.
I've never seen a snake.
Like, yeah, you'll see me like golf courses and things like that, but I'm sure you'd see them here.
Yeah.
And the spiders, you know, those are off in the desert somewhere, right?
Exactly.
Correct.
Well, I appreciate the geography lesson because you're welcome.
That's a good place to start.
Tori, anything else on this episode that you'd like to include for Rock 108 and P1 Nation?
Make sure that you're ready for a great season and we're all trying to heart us doing everything we can to perform for the everyone out there.
And yes, sometimes things don't go away.
So I hope everyone understands that.
I know they won't, but.
Hopefully if they hear it from me, they'll get a greater understanding that we're not going out there to lose.
So, yeah.
It's interesting how you say that because a lot of sports teams, especially the Iowa faithful, boy, they sure like to, uh, they sure like to tell you what they think, don't they?
Yes.
Yes.
But, um, no, I mean, I'm sure people sitting on the couch drinking a milkshake made in the hot dog.
Um, no more than, and more, no more than people in the building, but yeah, each to their own.
They're also the ones that think there are a lot of snakes and spiders in Australia right now.
Exactly.
Otherwise,
Tori, I'm looking forward to our next episode coming up soon.
All right.
Awesome.
Thanks very much, Brian.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the jock to jock podcast presented by Rock 108 and sponsored by Imon Communications.
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