Aussie punter Riley Thompson shining for Penn State

Not much about football comes naturally to Penn State punter and Australian import Riley Thompson. That’s fine for the 23-year-old transfer from Florida Atlantic, whom the Nittany Lions added out of the Portal in the offseason. He just relies on natural instinct to take care of his role in the third facet of the game. 

“For us, we do a lot of kicking,” said Thompson, who is part of a wave of players from Down Under taking over college football punting in the last decade. “That’s our whole game. I’ve been kicking a ball since I was four. So coming over to kick is not really a huge transition. Coming over to tackle in pads and a helmet and things like that is different. There are some guys who make the transition, but it’s a lot harder when you’ve got people who have played the game their whole life and we’re trying to pick it up in a year or so. 

“But that’s the main thing. We’ve been kicking our whole lives and that’s where the transition comes from.”

Thompson, who won Penn State’s punting job in the offseason over redshirt freshman Alex Bacchetta, is just in his second season of college football after punting last year for the Owls. He earned Freshman All-American status after averaging 45.5 yards per kick, but his eligibility status has him as a senior for the Nittany Lions. Before coming to the States, he played Aussie Rules Football at Haileybury College just outside of Melbourne. 

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There he sought out folks from Prokick Australia with the hopes of joining one of the special teams world’s elite fraternities. Seven of the last 10 winners of the Ray Guy Award have called Australia home and Thompson was named to the award’s watch list in the preseason. He’s loosely following in the footsteps of former Penn State punter Daniel Pasquariello, who started for two years from 2014-2017 and won a Big Ten title with the Nittany Lions. 

It’s an exceptional support group for those trying to make it half a world away. 

“You can just send a message to any Australian punter and I’m sure that they’re gonna reach out and have something good to say,” said Thompson. “I connected with Danny Pasquariello, who was the punter here a long time ago, just shot him a message and was like I’m coming to Penn State. And he’s worked with me and helped with me [with] a bunch of things. So I think that connection is massive for us.”

Thompson now more comfortable punting for Penn State

Thompson has come into his own over the last month with the Nittany Lions. Since a showdown with fellow Haileybury man and Iowa All-American Tory Taylor in late September, Thompson is averaging over 46 yards per kick and he’s had seven efforts over 50 yards. He was named as part of the Ray Guy Award Ray’s 8 for his performance against Indiana over the weekend, in which he averaged 49 yards per punt on six kicks. 

His improvement came after tweaking some small details in his motion with Stacy Collins and the Penn State specialist staff. Thompson said that he’s striking the ball better after soliciting feedback from a number of places. 

“It kind of came down the other week, I had some people message me after watching my games and they kind of made a few comments about the way I was kicking the ball,” he explained. “I went back and watched a bunch of film and worked at it. I wasn’t performing at a rate that I was happy with. So I came out and did a bunch of things and I found a new style that I was coming out with and it’s really helped me in the last couple of weeks to find my groove more than I did at the start.”

Penn State’s special teams improvement getting noticed

Originally one of the sticking points coming into the season, Penn State’s special teams have been consistent throughout the season. The unit now checks in at No. 51 overall in SP+ rankings, which doesn’t sound great until it’s considered that the Nittany Lions were No. 101 just two weeks ago. 

“I think right now our special teams over the last couple weeks is really playing well,” James Franklin said on Tuesday. “I think it starts with our specialists, Gabe [Nowsu], Riley, [Tyler] Duzansky and [Alex] Felkins, and I would throw [Daequan] Hardy in that as well. And I think that group is really playing much more consistent and making plays.”