A high-leaping Tongala footballer with a similarly flamboyant on-field personality will become Kyabram’s third American college football export when he lands in the Deep South of the United States.
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Makenzie Ryan flew out of Melbourne Airport, bound for Monroe, Louisiana, on Tuesday, March 26, and is following close friend Dylan Joyce into the larger-than-life world of American college football.
He will spend the next month in the US, alongside nine other Australian punting scholarship winners, on a fact-finding mission and will visit his new college from April 12 to 14.
On May 23, a couple of days after his 25th birthday, he will leave Australia to begin his five-year full-time scholarship.
Joyce and Ryan, geographically at least, aren’t that far apart in the south-east corner of the US — Joyce is based at the University of Miami in Florida, with the Louisiana border only a hop, skip and jump away (through the states of Mississippi and Alabama).
A third punter, 26-year-old Nathan Torney, has been at the University of Southern Illinois since 2022.
Brothers Tom and Jack Sheldon, from Moama, have also plied their trade with universities in North Carolina and Central Michigan.
During a six-week trip to the US last year, Ryan watched Joyce punt in two winning games for the Miami Hurricanes. Miami plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football, but is in a separate group of colleges to Ryan’s new home.
The only way they would meet is if both teams made it to a bowl match.
“We have been best friends since grade one, we both support Collingwood, and we played in a grand final together at Tonny in 2019,” Ryan said.
For now, however, his football days are over, as strict conditions mean he will not play any Aussie rules this year.
“I am not allowed to play any sport before joining the college. They are very strict,” Ryan said.
While Australians exchanging the Sherrin football for the pointy Wilson ball used in the American game is nothing new, having three Kyabram junior products in college football ranks is sure to turn a few heads.
Ryan will join the University of Louisiana at Monroe, or the ULM Warhawks, for the 2024 Sun Belt Conference season. The first game is scheduled for August 31.
‘Flyin’ Ryan’, as he became known for his exciting forward play in a six-year stint with the Murray league Blues, is the latest Prokick Australia export.
While there is a financial outlay for the athletic goalkicker, the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of other Aussies who have locked away multimillion-dollar deals at NFL level was too great to pass up.
Cameron Johnston, a 32-year-old who was drafted by Melbourne into the AFL in 2010, has just signed a $13 million three-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He is in his seventh year of NFL football, having played with the Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles.
It is a well-worn path that Ryan is taking, one that is quite familiar to him given his close friendship with Joyce — who left for the University of Miami 12 months ago to take up a scholarship offer.
Joyce and his team won six of their first eight games but lost four of the last five contests to finish the season with a 7-6 win/loss record.
Joyce punted on 43 occasions, playing all 13 games, with a longest kick of 60 yards in a match where he was thrown the ball seven times.
Ryan is following in the footsteps of not only his good friend but ground-breaking AFL stars such as Darren Bennett, Saverio Rocca, Ben Graham and more recently St Kilda pair Arryn Siposs and Bailey Rice.
Graham famously opposed Rocca when the Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles played off for a spot in the Super Bowl in 2008.
Siposs made his debut in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was involved in Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs.
His second punt, in the fourth quarter with the Eagles trailing by one point, was a low line drive that went in the wrong direction and was credited as the reason for his NFL career coming to an end.
Four of the top 10 punters (in attempts and total yardage) for the NCAA’s FBS come from Australia.
Cincinnati’s Mason Fletcher, one of two sons of 400-game Essendon great Dustin Fletcher at US colleges, topped the FBS rankings for 2022, making him statistically the best punter in college football.
He has wowed college football fans with crazy highlights, including a 54-yard punt followed by a hilarious Vince McMahon billionaire strut impression.
Ryan said it was Joyce that first had him considering an international code change.
“I started doing Prokick officially halfway through January (2024), but I did try out in January last year,” he said.
“My kicks weren’t the best in the trial, but I guess they saw potential in me. That gave me the confidence to give it a crack.”
Ryan will not only punt, he will also be the ‘holder’ — the player who receives the snap during a field goal or extra point attempt by the place-kicker.
Ryan said he struggled with the smaller and pointier balls, but his videos attracted the attention of the University of Louisana at Monroe, a school that dates back to 1931.
Louisiana, known as the Pelican State, ranks 20th in land area and 25th in population among the 50 US states, with roughly 4.6 million residents.
Baton Rouge is the state capital, and New Orleans is the largest city.
Monroe, the state’s eighth largest city with a population of 46,000, is four hours from New Orleans and is located in the north-east of the state.
Louisiana is in the area known as the US Sun Belt, along with Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, roughly two-thirds of California and the southern parts of Arkansas, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah.
ULM plays home games on campus at JPS Field at Malone Stadium; crowds for the Warhawks regularly topping 30,000.
Ryan said he had already circled two of the games on his roster.
His first game will be against Jackson State on August 31, but ULM also plays Texas Longhorns at Texas (a 100,000-seat stadium that is sold out for every game) and Auburn Tigers at their home ground (in front of an expected crowd of 97,000).
The ULM coach from 2023, Terry Bowden, was fired one day after the Warhawks finished last season with a 2-10 overall record — without a single Sun Belt Conference win.
Bryant Vincent was appointed the new coach in December last year.
Ryan has never played an American football game but said he had watched enough to understand the rules.
While he will have to compete for the number one punting role, he expects to be the starting punter once the season starts in August.
He will be studying primary school education at the same university that was attended by famous American singer Tim McGraw and former NFL quarterback Doug Pederson, who is head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Ryan is a Baltimore Ravens supporter in the NFL but said he would probably switch to the Saints when he arrived in Louisiana.
“I’ll be following (West Australian punter for the Saints) Lou Hedley,” he said.
Ryan said he was mostly looking forward to being a college athlete but was also planning to step out of his comfort zone wherever possible.
The former Kyabram P-12 College student is a qualified refrigeration and air conditioning mechanic and is one of two children of Peter and Paula Ryan.
His brother, Noah, plays football for Kyabram.
He is from a well-known footballing family; Peter Ryan one of three of five brothers (also Dennis, Brendan, Francis and Kevin) to have thrilled district football followers.
Makenzie Ryan ended up at Tongala after his junior football days, pursuing a premiership with friends — a goal that was only ruined by COVID-19.
In his first season with the Blues, as a 20-year-old, he established himself as a forward threat.
That was on the back of kicking 61 goals in 20 games for Kyabram’s premiership-winning reserve grade team and claiming the league goalkicking title.
He followed that up with a string of 40-goal seasons for Tongala.
Last year, he kicked a bag of 10 against Rumbalara and the year before booted four in a losing semi-final when he was pitted against his close mate Joyce, who was playing for the Murray league Magpies.
With the Blues, he wore number one, but will not know his ULM guernsey number until he starts his college education in June.
Ryan said he considered himself a decent kick, but when kicking for goal was a 50-50 proposition at best.
“I went through a few rough weeks just kicking points,” he said.
He said he expected to miss his family and his dog but expected the former to be scheduling a visit soon.
“I reckon my family will visit me over there before I come home,” he said.
Apart from Aussie rules, Ryan has played cricket and basketball, and dabbled in boxing.
“I tried boxing, but my cousin Nick just used to flog me, so that didn’t last long,” he said.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor