(Photo: Janes Reyes/WCSN)
Arizona State football enters the 2025 season with 39 newcomers who have all taken their own distinctive paths to Tempe. Some reside in the Valley and some have come from abroad; some are freshmen and some are transfers, but arguably, no one has had a path more unique than redshirt junior punter Matt McKenzie.
McKenzie didn’t grow up anywhere near American football. He didn’t grow up in The Valley or Arizona. He didn’t grow up in the United States or even North America. The 21-year-old grew up nearly 8,000 miles away from Mountain America Stadium, in Sydney, Australia, playing basketball, soccer, and Australian rules football.
The Aussie dreamt of playing in the Australian Football League, but after going undrafted, he had a decision to make. Attend college and find a new path in life, or continue to pursue sports. McKenzie chose the latter, and it’s a decision that’s taken him halfway across the world to play a foreign sport in a foreign land.
“I kept thinking, in 10 years’ time, what would I be more annoyed about,” McKenzie said. “Would I be more annoyed that I didn’t give it a go and I thought ‘what if’, or (that) I gave it a go and I failed? I’d rather give it a go and fail than not have a go at all.”
During his childhood and teenage years, American football was something that McKenzie would “look sideways at.” He became a Green Bay Packers fan through an uncle and cheered the team on through their late 2000s and 2010s success. His primary focus, though, was always much closer to home.
McKenzie flourished as a young Australian rules football player for the Sydney Swans Academy, splitting time as a forward and midfielder. He was so impressive as a youth player that he was selected to play at the state level for New South Wales and was considered a top performer from the 2019 U16 National Championships.
Unfortunately for McKenzie, the success didn’t last forever. Injuries, regression, and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic got in the way of him hearing his name called in the AFL Draft, leading to a period of transition in his life.
McKenzie considered leaving Australia to continue his education at San Diego State, but the urge to continue pursuing sports at the highest level continued to tug on him. In the end, he circled back to the sport that he kept tabs on out of his peripheral vision: American football.
“I reached out to Prokick, and they got in contact, and they were telling me that I need to come and give (it) a crack for real,” McKenzie said. “Pretty much in the space of a month decided, ‘you know what, I’m going to put everything into it,’ moved down to Melbourne and moved my whole life away.”
Prokick Australia — the program that McKenzie joined — was founded in 2007 by former AFL and NFL player Nathan Chapman and has transitioned a multitude of Australian rules football players into successful American football punters. With alumni such as former San Francisco 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky and current Seattle Seahawks punter Michael Dickson, McKenzie found himself in the right spot.
He took to American football well — partially due to the athleticism and big boot that he showcased as an Australian rules football player — and in less than two years, Prokick helped turn him into an attractive target for college programs like Arizona State.
ASU ended up being the best match for McKenzie. Special teams coach Charlie Ragle has worked with Prokick alumni in the past, and McKenzie was drawn in by what head coach Kenny Dillingham had started to build in Tempe.
“I could see coach Dillingham, the culture that he was breeding was one that was have fun, but you want to be part of a brotherhood,” McKenzie said.
To join the brotherhood, McKenzie packed up and moved away for the second time in his life. This time, though, he wasn’t moving across the country; he was moving across the planet, leaving behind his friends, family, and everything he had ever known. It’s a move that would be difficult for anyone, but for McKenzie, it was necessary.
“It’s tough when you have to move away,” McKenzie said. “But also, in my mindset, that’s part of life and you got to take that step as an adult. … At the end of the day, I came over here for a reason. It’s my dream to play some sort of semi-professional sport. This is as good as it gets.”
Being halfway across the world, McKenzie has missed special events, including his mom’s birthday, since moving to Arizona. The distance can be a challenge, but one thing it can’t take from McKenzie is his family’s constant support.
“I wouldn’t be here without them,” McKenzie said about his family. “They’ve been supporting me. I’ve been giving them a call whenever I’ve got the spare time at the end of the day. The time zones make it a little bit difficult, but I know they’re with me every day.”
In Arizona, McKenzie has been able to connect with his cousin Adrian, who lives locally in Gilbert, and has been able to help the punter when needed. He also has a new family in his teammates.
The Australian has been busy practicing and studying the playbook on the field and in team facilities since arriving in Tempe just before the start of fall camp. However, whenever he has a break, he’s been establishing relationships with his teammates — especially members of the special teams room — off the field, who have, in turn, helped him adjust to his new life.
One member of the special teams room, redshirt senior kicker Jesus Gomez, knows exactly what McKenzie is going through. Gomez grew up in Puebla, Mexico, and transitioned from playing soccer to American football, eventually leaving his homeland to kick for Eastern Michigan. Now at Arizona State, Gomez is doing all that he can to help McKenzie’s international adjustment be as smooth as possible.
“I understand what he thinks, and I know what is weird for him coming into a new country,” Gomez said. “Learning football for the first time, I understand what he thinks and what he goes through. I try to help him to just get adjusted as quickly as possible.”
Gomez has been giving McKenzie rides to practice and answering any questions that the Australian has. As a special teams unit, the group tries to plan outings away from the football field in order to get closer to each other as people. From going to arcades, to something as simple as a meal, to mundane tasks like helping McKenzie set up a bank account, the group of punters and kickers has formed the brotherhood that McKenzie hoped he was joining.
“The main thing is leaning on the team and the family, I think,” McKenzie said. “The place here, they’ve embraced me, and they’ve really loved it and everyone’s around me. I know the guys now and it’s only been a couple of weeks.”
While positive relationships are incredibly important, they’re only a sliver of what McKenzie has been putting his time and effort into. He came to Arizona State to be the best punter he can possibly be and he’s shown the dedication needed to get better each day. Learning from Ragle to build off the foundation that was laid down at Prokick.
“Working with (Ragle) is such a blessing,” McKenzie said. “You’ve got a coach who really knows what he’s talking about, and I can lean on him for advice. There’s a lot of places where you might go and the special teams coach has no idea how to punt, but knows scheme and stuff better, whereas he knows all of it.”
McKenzie has a long road of improvement ahead of him — the two are still working on the basics of timing, footwork and kicking spirals — but Ragle has noticed progress and a competitive spirit in the short time that they’ve been together.
“It’s just the little things,” Ragle said. “Understanding the timing, being able to get the punt off quicker. Understanding his surroundings more. The more reps you get, the better you get.
“He’s a pro. He cares about being great, and he continues to work extremely hard.”
That desire to work hard extends beyond McKenzie’s sessions with Ragle. The Australian has become a gym rat, spending his off days at the team facility, working out and trying to become the best version of himself.
The intense work ethic stems from the reason that McKenzie came to Arizona State: The desire to play sports at the highest level possible. In his mind, if he’s leaving his homeland and putting a 17-hour gap between himself and his family to play a sport, he’d better give it his all.
“It’s so amazing to me to be at a place where I get access to anything I want, with the best people I want, anytime I want,” McKenzie said. “I’m just like, ‘I’ve got to make the best use of that.’ By doing that, in my mind, I’m doing the right thing and I’m making mum and dad back home proud. I can go back at the end of the day and tell them, ‘You know what? I did work hard today.’”
Between his background, his work ethic, and preparation, McKenzie has set himself up as well as he possibly can for his first collegiate season. The only hurdles he has left to clear are out on the field.
“He’s older, 21 years old, so he’s more mature, so that definitely helps him,” Ragle said. “He’s played in a competitive environment, but there’s nuances of college football that you can only gain and gather by playing in college football, so he’s got to continue to work through that.”
McKenzie could get his first opportunity to work through the nuances of college football when Arizona State opens its season by hosting Northern Arizona on August 30. He could also be relegated to the sidelines for the season opener, due to choosing a school where there was no guarantee of him being handed the keys to the punting unit.
McKenzie seems set to start the year behind the incumbent punter, sophomore Kanyon Floyd. Floyd was a star punter and kicker at Horizon High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he was labeled as the No. 3 punter in the nation by On3 and 247Sports. Floyd showed promise in his freshman season as a Sun Devil, and offers the coaching staff flexibility with his trick play prowess.
“(McKenzie’s) battling against a guy that’s been here and has a year under his belt, that has actually punted in games,” Ragle said. “That’s a challenge in itself.”
It might be a challenge for McKenzie — and in some ways a competition — but it’s one that he’s embracing with a smile on his face. The two punters have become close in a short amount of time after Floyd helped welcome the Australian into the fold. They help each other on and off the field, and are pushing each other as friends, not rivals, to give Ragle and Dillingham the two best punters possible.
“I think if we both get better, we both benefit from that, and then the program benefits as a whole,” McKenzie said. “… You want to go out there and do the best day of punting you can to help the team. At the end of the day, that’s what you want. The best result is what helps the team. If we’re winning every game this season because we’re helping out on special teams, then as long as we do our job, then we’re real happy. It’s not fun being part of a team that loses every week, but you get to go out and punt every day.”
Only time will tell how the season plays out for McKenzie and Arizona State, but one thing is for certain: The Australian will always give it his all. He didn’t move to an entirely new continent just to relax. He moved to play and win at the highest level possible. He moved to chase a dream.
“I always wanted to play some sort of sport that was, in some way, professional,” McKenzie said. “I think the environment here is so professional that it’s such a unique experience, that I was like, ‘Well, if I can go and do it, and I’ve got the ability to do it, why would I not do it?’”
