From Australia to Auburn, Oscar Chapman seeks to be nation’s top punter

AUBURN – Australian punter Oscar Chapman is entering his junior season with two goals: to be consistent and to be the 2022 recipient of the Ray Guy Award.

“The biggest thing for me is to continue to get consistent,” Chapman said. “Obviously I’m trying to put the ball all the way at the boundary so the team doesn’t have to worry about getting returns… Another goal for me, I want to put myself out there and get the Ray Guy Award, the best punter award. I had a pretty good season last year, I just had a few games that let me down. I just really want to keep that consistency going throughout the whole year.”

Averaging 42.6 yards per punt with a high of 67 yards on 85 career punts, Chapman is currently the second best punter in the SEC. Earlier this month, Chapman was named to the Coaches preseason All-SEC Team. This is not enough for him, though. Chapman wants to receive the Ray Guy Award, which is given to the most outstanding punter in college football each year by the Augusta Sports Council.

“It’s exciting,” Chapman said on being one of the five Tigers on Coaches All-SEC Team. “To get second is tough, especially to another good Australian punter. I know him pretty well. It’s exciting to know that other coaches notice me. It gives me excitement to know that people are watching out, especially our punting team. We’re looking good. It’s just exciting to know that people noticed us last season.”

Tigers from Prokick Australia

Before Auburn, Chapman was a member of Prokick Australia, a program closer to his home in Adelaide, South Australia. This program trains athletes to be able to perform at the College or NFL level.

This is not the first time that Auburn has traveled across the world for a punter. Aaron Siposs, the Tigers’ punter for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, was also a part of this program. Siposs was able to help Chapman in his transition to the states before he left Auburn for the NFL.

“I didn’t really understand anything and kind of just sat back, watching and learning,” Chapman said. “Then, I think it was the end of fall camp, I got to meet up with Arryn while he was punting for a little bit and stuff, kind of getting ready for practices and camps… It’s just good to chat with him and figure a little bit more out and ask what it was like going out there and just the experience kind of, like ‘how do I do this to the best of my ability and have fun while doing it?’ It was good to get that from him.”

Chapman told the media that he was at Prokick for about four months, where he spent many long days training with the other players in the program.

“It’s pretty brutal,” Chapman said. “You get there and you just work by yourself kind of. You’re out there practicing, but you’re just kind of left to yourself with a bunch of footballs and you just kick, kick, kick, kick. You go train as much as you can, just like we do here. We wake up at 4 a.m. we go to boxing, we go lift and we go run… Then you get better and better and better. As soon as you get to the point where you’re comfortable kicking the ball, the coach goes ‘Yep. Let’s get you ready. Let’s start working you and get really specific with it.’”

Along with the long practices and workouts, Chapman had a job a few days a week to ensure that he could afford this program. Chapman said that he worked in event management, where he contributed to the setting up and tearing down of equipment for events.

“It took me about an hour and a half to drive down there and I’d just set up events,” Chapman said. “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.”

Fall Camp

Chapman has been working with wide receiver Shedrick Jackson, along with the rest of the punting team, to ensure confidence going into game one and continue success from this past season.

“I think it’s just team chemistry,” Chapman said. “I work with Shed a lot and I worked with a lot of the punt team and they’re all like ‘I’ve got your back. I’ve got you covered’ so it just put me at ease. I look over, I get my punt, catch it, and I see Shed or I’d see whoever else is running down… I know they’re going to be there. We work at it in practice and we’re just confident. We go out there and do the job… It was that chemistry between the group that just made it fun and easy to do the job.