Australian punter Hudson Kaak enjoyed first year in America, Oklahoma State football

STILLWATER — Australian-born punter Hudson Kaak has been at Oklahoma State for 18 months now, and he still gets daily questions about his homeland that baffle him a bit.

How big are the spiders there?

Do you ride kangaroos?

While he can only shake his head at such ponderings, Kaak feels fortunate that he has not experienced the predominant American stereotype he anticipated in coming to the country in January 2023.

“There’s a big stereotype that there’s a lot of arrogance and that type of stuff in America,” Kaak said. “I can’t speak for the whole of America, but from where I am, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone is so nice. They’ve had nothing but time for me. They’ve been super-supportive of me.”

Kaak had a successful first season as OSU’s punter, settling into a role as the target kicker, while veteran Wes Pahl handled most of the distance punts. Of OSU’s 66 punts, Kaak was in for 38 of them, downing 20 inside the 20-yard line. He averaged 39.7 yards per punt and opponents managed just 2.9 yards per return against him.

OSU coach Mike Gundy envisions a similar plan for Kaak and Pahl this year, as he continues to be impressed with Kaak’s development in his first year playing American football.

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“It just takes time,” Gundy said. “It’s a completely different game. Even though they’re in a non-contact environment for the world they live in, there’s still people coming at you. So it’s much different. He’s adjusting to our game and learning the concepts. There’s a little bit of savvy involved in being out there. Guys that come from overseas like that have never experienced that. He’s making strides in that area.”

Kaak knew nothing of American college football when he first decided to pursue punting at ProKick Australia a few years ago.

And when he was told about possible interest from Gundy, Kaak had to go online to do some research.

“The first thing that came up was the rant,” Kaak said of Gundy’s famous 2007 tirade. “I was like, man, this is pretty cool.”

A couple years after that moment, Kaak was on the field inside a packed Boone Pickens Stadium.

“It’s a weird thought to think that my first-ever snap in a football game ever was in front of 60,000 people and everyone watching on TV,” Kaak said. “It was nerve-wracking, and thinking back to it, I don’t think I realized the volume of the people that would have been paying attention to it at the time.

“Honestly, the most nerve-wracking punt for me was in the Big 12 Championship Game. It was so loud in there and we were, like, 12 seconds into the game, because our first drive wasn’t great.”

Chalk it up as another learning experience for the 22-year-old from Seymour, Victoria, located north of Melbourne in the southern section of Australia.

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“Pretty much everything has been new for me, other than the actual fundamentals of a kick,” he said. “I barely knew the rules when I came over here.”

For the spring of 2023, OSU’s previous Aussie punter, Tom Hutton, was still on campus to finish his education, and he worked with Kaak on some of the game’s fundamentals, from rules to holding for place kicks.

“Now, just knowing what to expect will help, because it’s a pretty crazy environment, honestly,” Kaak said. “When I first came in, I was a deer in the headlights a little bit. Didn’t know where to look, didn’t know what to do. It was super-fun, but I had no prior knowledge of what the routine would be like.

“This year, I’m able to know what to expect and really focus on what I’m doing and build from there.”

After a 10-day trip home following the Texas Bowl, Kaak returned to Stillwater where he and a couple teammates came up with the idea for a series of punting trick-shot videos posted to social media.

They ranged from kicking through the basket from odd locations inside Gallagher-Iba Arena to targeted kicks into trash cans at the Sherman Smith Training Center.

“That was just a thing in the summer — oh, sorry, the winter,” Kaak said, correcting his reference to the American season timeline, which is opposite of Australia. “Football content is really low that time of year and we thought people might be getting bored because there isn’t a lot going on.

“I had an idea to put up a video of me doing one trick shot and it snowballed from there. Then I had a few guys help me out with it. Coming up with new ideas was really fun. We might do a bit more in the summer. We’ll see how we go.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OSU football punter, Australian Hudson Kaak enjoying America