GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Punter
Jeremy Crawshaw owns a pair of new school records before his first game: longest fax and earliest signee in UF football history.
Crawshaw officially joined the program Wednesday shortly after 7 a.m. when his National Letter of Intent arrived in Florida's compliance office. Wait, what? It's only Tuesday. Not in Emu Plains, New South Wales in Australia, where Crawshaw calls home.
The Australian used the clock to his advantage during the Early Signing Period. A suburb located about 35 miles west of Sydney, Emu Plains is 16 hours ahead of what the clocks that hang around the Swamp say today.
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Crawshaw is the first member of Florida's 2020 recruiting class to sign as the Gators join a trend that has produced five Ray Guy Award winners since 2007 by adding a punter from Down Under. Crawshaw made his official visit to campus in September and watched the Gators beat Tennessee.
His travel time from Australia to Florida lasted longer than his visit, but a trip to Chick-fil-A and tour of the UF campus quickly got him acclimated to college life.
Crawshaw graduated from high school in December 2018 and spent the past year training for an opportunity to play in America as many of his countrymen have in the past decade, including former college standouts
Tom Hornsey (Memphis),
Tom Hackett (Utah) and
Brad Wing (LSU), and current collegians such as Kentucky's
Max Duffy, Miami's
Louis Hedley and USF's
Trent Schneider.
Meanwhile, with punter
Tommy Townsend in his final season, the Gators used all their resources to search far and wide for a potential replacement.
While Crawshaw had spoken on the phone and online with Florida's staff, they had not met until that September visit when the punter and his parents made the trip to the U.S.
On his recruiting visit, Crawshaw tried to explain to some of his future teammates the reason so many Australian kickers have found success stateside in recent years. Instead of going outside to play catch, kids in Australia usually play footy, the nickname they give to Australian Rules Football, their homeland's favorite sport.
To practice, they constantly pass balls back and forth by kicking them with their feet, developing the coordination and leg muscles to excel in American football. Crawshaw is listed at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds and based on Florida's extensive review of his film, he is proficient in the American-style spiral punt. Many Australian punters utilize the end-over-end kick like in rugby.
With Townsend's final game coming up in the Orange Bowl Dec. 30 against Virginia, Crawshaw will enroll early and join the team's offseason conditioning drills in January.
He'll be the one with the rich Australian accent.
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