Isaac Pearson woke up beaming.
Pearson, 22, had once been headed on a different path. But since a change of plans, he’d been dreaming of this. Now, it had actually happened.
The Australian punter, out of the heralded Prokick Australia program, pulled on a burnt orange long-sleeved shirt and a three-year-old black ball cap with a Horns logo.
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The night before, he’d announced his commitment to Texas, becoming the 11th member of the 2021 class.
“Never did I think I’d actually land at Texas,” Pearson said last week during a Zoom call from his family’s home in Newcastle, New South Wales. “But the stars aligned and here we are.”
I am incredibly excited and honoured to announce that I have accepted a full scholarship to study and play football at The University of Texas. #HookEm #trUTh21 @CoachTomHerman @CoachJ_Boulware @Coach_Horny @BCarringtonUT @ProkickAus @JohnnyPKA @ConquestCQ pic.twitter.com/9DTxvLLoul
— Isaac Pearson (@Isaac_Pearson23) May 29, 2020
Pearson grew up in the harbor city on Australia’s southeastern coast playing Australian rules football. So he knew how to punt, but it wasn’t until he was 19 and completing an apprenticeship as a mechanic for a Newcastle coal mine, when he was approached by Prokick. The invite-only academy has served as a punting pipeline for several Division I programs, with Ohio State and Michigan State among the most recent clients, in addition to Texas.
“I had to finish my apprenticeship before we could start full time,” Pearson said. “I was putting in a bit of work (by) myself and kicking in open fields … before I started training full time.”
When Pearson, who’s 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, first learned about college football, and about his prospects of playing in the United States by training with Prokick, he was most intrigued by the Longhorns, with whom he felt an immediate connection.
UT has an established pipeline with Prokick. Its past two punters, including starting junior punter Ryan Bujcevski, a Sydney native, are Prokick alums. From 2015-2017, Michael Dickson, also a Sydney native, kicked for the Longhorns. The current Seattle Seahawks punter declared for the NFL Draft as a junior, after winning the 2017 Ray Guy Award, presented to the nation’s best punter, and earning consecutive All-American honors. Dickson finished his career as UT’s all-time leader in punting average (45.32), among several other categories.
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“I found out that there was an Aussie playing for them,” Pearson said. “So that piqued my interest.
“When I first realized what the whole college football atmosphere was like, I figured that I needed to support a team and find someone that I could watch and get a bit more invested in, rather than just watching everything and not really understanding it. There wasn’t anything that jumped out as more American than playing football for the Texas Longhorns.”
It wasn’t initially clear he’d ever have the chance to play for the Longhorns himself, though. He started out training with Prokick once every three or four months, flying south for a weekend from Newcastle to Melbourne. But last year, he moved to Melbourne to begin training full time.
In a typical week, Pearson participated in eight training sessions, including four conditioning periods that would start at 5:30 a.m. and four punting periods that lasted two or three hours. Dave Tuinauvai, founder and head of performance of Conquest Athletic Performance, served as Pearson’s strength and conditioning coach.
Tuinauvai’s clients include rugby players and professional boxers. Since 2011, he’s also worked with several Prokick students, including alums such as 2016 Ray Guy Award winner and San Francisco 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky and former Utah Utes punter Tom Hackett, a two-time Ray Guy Award winner.
Tuinauvai recalled “Pearso” arriving in January 2019. Like most Aussie rules players, he had a leaner body type that Tuinauvai was tasked with reshaping.
“They’ve gotta have a big engine because they run a lot kilometers,” Tuinauvai said. “So I had to change that more into a football player and get more into lifting. What I do with the Prokick boys is I get them in with the rugby players, so they can see the type of body they’re trying to get.”
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The intense training sessions help prepare players for the rigors of college football. Tuinauvai has his Prokick clients tackle rugby players and spar with boxers, ingraining individual physical toughness.
“Mentally, when they go out there, when they go to this next level, I’ve already thrown them through everything,” Tuinauvai said. “So when they land — and we know how tough Division I football is — the coaches know it’s the Aussie kid trying to prove a point. We teach them, mentality-wise, that they’ve gotta be coached so that the coach can’t break you.”
Physically, Pearson began to fill out around the same time he also found his stride punting. Last year, he traveled with Prokick as a part of a circuit in California. He was competing with peers, who he’d thought were “leaps and bounds” ahead of him. But he realized that he wasn’t far away, fueling his determination.
Soon after, Pearson said that between August and September 2019, he found his rhythm, launching booming punts with regularity.
@Isaac_Pearson23 pic.twitter.com/pjc0GSHo3i
— The Baron (@JohnnyPKA) May 29, 2020
“It’s all about finding that balance,” he said. “It’s really only been in the last year that I’ve been able to really hone in on my craft. It’s taken a bit of some maturity. Like, moving to a new city was tough. But eventually I sort of gathered myself.”
“It’s a testament to Isaac, man,” Tuinauvai said. “He’s had that elite mindset since he made the switch that he wanted to do this.”
Entering 2020, though, Pearson had yet to hear from any colleges. At Prokick, communication between colleges and players is strictly filtered through Prokick coaches. Pearson believed in Prokick’s track record and that he’d land with a school eventually.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia, Pearson rejoined his family in Newcastle. While home, between February and March, Pearson said, the Longhorns made initial contact.
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“My coaches sent film to wherever. I don’t really know,” Pearson said. “It just happened that the first team that contacted me was the Longhorns. … It was sort of kept on the downlow, I’m not really sure how the whole recruiting process works over in the States. But here it’s all kept pretty quiet.”
Special teams coordinator Jay Boulware and special teams quality control staffer Casey Horny directed the recruiting charge. After conversations with them, Pearson received an offer. He will join Bujcevski, who missed four games because of a broken clavicle last year, as the second scholarship punter on roster.
“I wanted something that’s going to hold me in good stead for a career when I’m finished with football,” he said. “Texas is one of the top public universities in the country and in the world. I can’t ask for anything more than that.”
Pearson plans on majoring in psychology. “Being in the coal mines is something no one wanted to be doing,” he said.
He hasn’t visited Austin yet, but he’s heard great things about the city’s atmosphere and plans on making his official visit in January 2021. He already knows Bujcevski from briefly training together just before Bujcevski joined the Longhorns. Pearson said he can’t wait to not only reunite with him, but to walk the Forty Acres for the first time. His family, despite seeing him leave the country, is excited for him.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Pearson said. “That’s for sure.”
(Photo: Courtesy of Pearson)
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