JUST IN: TENNESSEE 24-YEARS-OLD PUNTER WAS SELECTED TO THE.

Jackson Ross, a punter for Tennessee, makes the SEC All-Freshman Team.
Tennessee’s 24-year-old Australian punter was the only member of the team selected to the SEC All-Freshman Team.

Jackson Ross had a rough start to his first full season at Tennessee against Virginia, but he eventually turned into a dependable member of the Vols’ special teams unit. The 24-year-old Australian punter was named Tennessee’s only selection to the SEC All-Freshman Team on Thursday, reaping one of the benefits of his outstanding redshirt freshman campaign in 2023. The accolade placed him in very good company; Dustin Colquitt was the last Vols punter to be named an all-freshmen by the league in 2001.

When Tennessee added Ross to its 2022 recruiting class last summer, it was a latecomer to the American college football scene’s movement of Australian punters. Ross had moved to a new nation just weeks prior to the start of the previous season.

Ross, who redshirted the previous season, averaged 42.8 yards on 48 punts, good for sixth place in the SEC and third place nationally among freshmen punters. He also contributed to Tennessee’s fifth-place finish in the SEC and twentieth-place finish in the country in net punting.

Ross had nine punts of 50 yards or more, and he pinned opponents inside their 20-yard line eighteen times. His longest punt of the season was a 71-yarder against Alabama in October. In that game, Ross broke the program record when he totaled 266 yards on five punts for a 53.2-yard average. This is the best single-game average (minimum five punts) in Tennessee history, surpassing Jimmy Colquitt’s two 53.0-yard averages (Auburn 1983 and LSU 1982).

His punt of 71 yards was the Vols’ longest since 2018.

In October, Tennessee defeated Texas A&M thanks in large part to Ross’s ability to kick with both feet and his effective rollout punts in the Australian style. Ross’s punt down to the Aggies’ 1-yard line set up a play that saw Dee Williams return a punt for the game-winning touchdown.

Throughout the entire season, Tennessee allowed just 5 net yards on seven punt returns, good for third place in the SEC and fifth place in the FBS.

In his home city of Melbourne, Ross attended Haileybury College before spending three years playing Australian Rules Football for Hawthorn Football Club. Only two of the 14 SEC teams without an Australian punter this season were Tennessee, thanks to the Prokick Australia program, which has sent numerous punters to American college football. Ross has kept up connections with a number of college punters from his native country, such as Tory Taylor of Iowa, who will be the opposing player for the Vols against the Hawkeyes on New Year’s Day in Orlando at the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.

Three players from Tennessee were named to the Associated Press All-SEC teams earlier this week: defensive end James Pearce Jr. (first team), running back Jaylen Wright (second team), and center Cooper Mays (second team). However, Pearce (first team) was the only player chosen by the league’s coaches to be named to the All-SEC team.