Hutton Didn't Come to America for Fame and Fortune, He Came for the Experience

STILLWATER – I have to admit that seeing Oklahoma State play Notre Dame, and for me to have the chance to call the game on radio between the Cowboys and the Fighting Irish is a bucket list item. I’ve always dreamed of Oklahoma State playing Notre Dame in a big game. You know how some people like to say there are billions of people across the globe that couldn’t care less about the match-up in the Play Station Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma State’s veteran punter Tom Hutton knows something about that. He at least said he had heard of Notre Dame back in his younger days playing Australian-Rules Football.

“The name at least is something that I’m aware of,” Hutton answered. “Back home college football is not huge, but the big colleges that you’ve sort of heard of and the logos you’ve seen and stuff like that. Before I got here that was all I knew of it, but since I got here you realize it is an historic program.”

Hutton has realized a lot of things since Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy contacted ProKick Australia, a firm that connects talented kickers down under with college football programs in the USA. Gundy’s inquiry and ProKick Australia’s recommendation of Hutton led to an early morning phone call from special teams analyst M.K. Taylor and Hutton was on his way to Stillwater. He would later be joined by his wife Kelsey, who sped up the wedding process to accommodate Tom’s college agenda.

Hutton said in his first interview in front of the Oklahoma State beat media that he has enjoyed Oklahoma State, his role, and American football.

“It’s been everything that I expected and more. Like I said, I didn’t know that much about college football from the actual playing of the sport. I didn’t know we flew to games. I just thought we drove to games,” Hutton said of his naïve start with coming from Australia. “Just things like that that I didn’t know about that everybody over here knows. The first few days of practice they would blow the whistle, and everybody takes off in different directions. I had to pick somebody and follow them around.”

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Hutton can put on quite a punting exhibition in practice.

He’s followed the right ones. He’s also followed the instructions of his head coach, who has said he wants punts 42-45-yards that won’t be returned. This season Hutton is averaging 42-yards a kick with only six touchbacks, 28-of-62 punts have been fair caught, 24 have been inside the 20, and opponents have a total of 68-yards on 18 returns and an average of 3.8-yards a return. That’s actually the highest in Hutton’s three seasons. Fans get frustrated because they want to see the boomers over 50-yards of which Hutton has six this season. His career average is 40.4-yards a punt with less than one-yard a return. That makes Gundy smile.

Hutton is one of two Australians as kicker Alex Hale is also from Australia, but like most players Hale is much younger than Hutton at 23-years-old.

“We’re a really close group, especially this year I guess,” Hutton said of the specialists. “I’ve made relationships with a lot of guys, the older guys when I first came in, I guess. I mean when I first came in, I was 28 (years-old) and there were 24-year-olds on the team, so it was four-years different. Now, I’m 31 and there are just a few 24-year-olds. The gap keeps getting bigger between me and the next oldest. I’ve made relationships that I will keep forever and people that I will keep in touch with forever.”

The NFL currently has seven Australian punters and the number is bound to grow, but don’t expect Hutton to be one of them. His consistency and the weird spin he can put on his punts is attractive to pro scouts. His age at 31, not so much. Hutton said that isn’t why he came here.

“I think people get caught up in looking at college as a stepping-stone to the NFL, but for me it wasn’t that at all,” Hutton explained. “It’s an experience all in itself. Even though I won’t make the big money, it is the life experience that I will take away from it. That’s what I’m here for.”

And the construction degree?

“And the construction degree, of course.”