Auburn football punter Oscar Chapman’s 2022 goal? ‘Get the Ray Guy Award’

AUBURN — Oscar Chapman’s day job in an Australian beach warehouse funded his punting career.

He was in the Prokick Australia program that prepares punters and kickers for American football to capitalize on “our natural Aussie instinct of kicking a ball,” as the website puts it.

Chapman is from Adelaide, South Australia, and he had to go out-of-state for the rigorous training program. “Not everyone’s parents want to help pay for all of this,” he said, so he needed to help out financially.

“I was working in event management,” Chapman said. “So, basically, get to a warehouse down by the beach — it took me about an hour and a half to drive down there — and I just set up events. I’d go set up fencing. It was a hard job. I wasn’t the biggest guy. I was working with a lot of bigger, older dudes. It was very physically demanding of me.”

Indeed, physically demanding for a guy who says rugby is “a little too crazy” for him. But it allowed Chapman to work on his craft during the remaining hours and eventually find his way to Auburn in 2020. Since then, he has established himself as one of the SEC’s best punters.

His goals entering the 2022 season transcend the conference, though.

“Really want to put myself out there and get the Ray Guy Award,” he said. “I really want to push for that.”

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Chapman averaged 44.1 yards per punt last season, ranking second in the SEC. He placed 23 of his 57 punts inside the 20-yard line. Auburn was top-20 in the country in net punt yards, accounting for opponents’ returns.

It wasn’t enough for Chapman. When asked what it means to be named preseason second-team All-SEC by league coaches, his answer wasn’t the usual.

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“To get stamped second was tough, to another good Australian punter,” he said. “The (Texas) A&M guy. And I know him pretty well.”

That would be Nik Constantinou of the Aggies. Chapman says there is a kinship among Australian college football punters, especially those with whom he endured the training program. He’s in a group chat of about 30.

“It’s pretty brutal. You get there and you work for four-odd months by yourself,” Chapman said of Prokick Australia. “You’re kind of left to yourself with a bunch of footballs, and you just kick. You just kick, kick, kick. … We wake up at 4 a.m.”

It has paid off. Chapman’s first season of college football was neutered by limited attendance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But even those 20,000-spectator games at Jordan-Hare Stadium were the largest crowds he had ever played in front of. He had no idea what was waiting for him in 2021, culminating in a home-field Iron Bowl.

“This is the peak of everything,” he remembers thinking. “This is insane.”

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football punter Oscar Chapman’s 2022 goal? Win Ray Guy Award