The Punter From Down Under
Alex Semadeni
Most college football fans aren’t overly thrilled when their team’s punter takes the field. Boise State’s James Ferguson-Reynolds might be the exception.
The junior punter, known affectionately by Bronco fans as JFR, is quite popular in the Boise community. Clearly defined by a curly mullet, a thick Australian accent, and a laid-back demeanor, it’s easy to get caught up in Ferguson-Reynolds’s charm. But on the field, he is as locked in as he’s ever been.
Ferguson-Reynolds grew up in Geelong, Australia, a coastal city about 45 miles southwest of Melbourne. He always had a ball in his hand growing up, gravitating towards basketball and tennis before ultimately focusing on his favorite sport – Australian Rules Football.
The game is considerably different from American football, with each team consisting of 18 players on the field at one time. Players can advance the ball in one of three ways: running (though there must be a dribble every 16 yards), using a clenched fist to “punch” the ball (a handball), or through the most popular method, kicking.
“It's all kicking-based,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “In Aussie rules, you’re in a sense the quarterback of the play. You have to pass the ball with your foot around any angle of the field with both feet to hit a moving target, which is just like a quarterback trying to throw a ball and find an open receiver. It’s really similar except we do it with our feet. You have to move and run and kick the ball at all different, crazy angles while dudes are trying to tackle you. It’s a good translation to the American game.”
Ferguson-Reynolds excelled at the sport, becoming quite adept at kicking with both feet while dodging defenders. His skill set showed promise, and he earned a spot at the junior level of the Australian Football League, competing for Bannockburn and Bell Park. JFR had dreams of competing at the highest level and declared for the 2019 AFL draft. Unfortunately, his name wasn’t called.
“It was a bit of a kick in the face for me,” Ferguson-Reynolds said.
Dejected, he entered the workforce and laid concrete for his parents’ construction company for a year. He quickly realized how much he hated it.
“I absolutely hated it,” he said. “I didn't like that one bit. I realized that I wanted to continue doing sports.”
Ferguson-Reynolds had long looked up to Michael Dickson, a punter from Sydney, Australia. Dickson played collegiately for Texas before being drafted in 2018 by the Seattle Seahawks, a team which he still plays for. Prior to joining the Longhorns, Dickson had played professionally in the AFL, and his story was well-documented. He had been discovered by collegiate coaches after joining Prokick Australia, a company designed to help aspiring Australian kickers and punters connect with collegiate football coaches. Inspired by Dickson’s journey, JFR decided to attempt a similar trajectory.
“I thought about what an opportunity that would be and how cool it is to sit on the bench all day and come out for a couple of kicks and call it a day,” Ferguson-Reynolds. “I thought I'd give that a shot. I went down and they sort of gave me an assessment and said I had a pretty good leg. I decided to go with that and see where it would take me, and was in that program for a year. Then Boise State came calling.”
Boise State was the only program that Ferguson-Reynolds talked to. The recruiting process occurred during the Covid-19 era, so getting a feel of Boise in person wasn’t an option. He had several conversations over Zoom with special teams coordinator Stacy Collins during his first stint with the Broncos, while the remainder of his information came from online searches.
“We didn't have a clue where it was,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “I couldn't tell you where Idaho was on the map. It was a wild time in the family. It was a lot of Google searching and just watching the games that season.”
Whatever those search engines pulled up worked. Ferguson-Reynolds committed to the Broncos, sight unseen, in 2021.
His journey to America began with some unease. Still navigating the international pandemic, it wasn’t until the day he left for his solo flight across the Pacific when he finally secured his visa to travel overseas.
“It was a mess trying to get my visa sorted back home,” JFR said. “It was wild. It was a pretty stressful time just trying to get everything sorted with COVID and all the paperwork. The hardest thing about coming over here was flying across the whole country by myself.”
However, Ferguson-Reynolds was awestruck when he arrived in the Treasure Valley.
“I fell in love with Boise straight away,” JFR said. “I'm a country kid. I grew up on land, grew up with animals. Out here, you've got the best of both worlds. You have the countryside and you've also got a small city. The first time I came over, I instantly fell in love with the people around here, the layout of the city and where it is. It’s such a great, safe spot. I just fell in love with Boise and the program too.”
Though he had been to America a few times as a kid, he still experienced a bit of shock regarding the language barrier. There were instances where he would have to repeat himself numerous times while ordering food at restaurants, and several times got strange looks from his teammates when using slang words that his teammates had no idea how to interpret.
However, the change was nothing compared to the culture shock experienced in the Bleymaier Football Center.
“I sat in my first team meeting and had no idea what was going on,” JFR said. “I would just nod my head and sit there and take notes. They were talking about plays and positions and I didn't even know what a left guard was. It was wild. Through that spring and then all through summer and fall camp, I was still sitting on the sidelines trying to figure out what a flag was thrown for and what a holding penalty was. It was a mess for a little bit, but I finally got the hang of it. It was wild for the first six months just trying to learn everything.”
Jonah Dalmas, Boise State’s all-time scoring leader, took JFR under his wing.
“Jonah was awesome,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “He took me everywhere and taught me everything. He was my football translator at that time. That's a good way of putting it. He sat on the sideline with me and was teaching me everything. He was really good.”
Despite the learning gap, Bronco fans wouldn’t have noticed any difference on the field. Ferguson-Reynolds was instantly a natural and demonstrated so as the team’s primary punter as a freshman. He played in 13 of the team’s 14 games, averaging 41.8 yards over 63 punts. He dropped 21 inside the 20-yard line and only had four punts go for touchbacks. At the end of the season, he was named to the College Football News Freshman All-America Second Team.
He had established himself as a trusted special teams’ member over the course of his debut season and had aspirations of using his offseason to further gain a leg. More comfortable with a year under his belt, Ferguson-Reynolds grinded during the spring season. He left Boise to return home for the May break, ready to enjoy himself while taking advantage of being back in his home country. However when he arrived, his excitement was short-lived.
Within an hour of arriving home, JFR’s mother informed him that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks earlier.
“I was home for an hour when they told me,” James said. “My mom couldn't wait any longer. She broke down in tears and it was really hard. Obviously I was excited to be coming home, and it was a whole different change of moods instantly. Obviously you just want to sit there and be with her because at that time it was very new. We didn't know what the long-term plan was or what was happening really. It was all still in the testing stage and it would take weeks to get results back.”
Ferguson-Reynolds went through an array of emotions during the three-and-a-half weeks he was home, especially when it was time to go back.
“Going back to being halfway around the world was a tough thought,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “You want to stay there and help mom out. There still was a lot of unknowns. That was the scary part. Obviously I wanted to spend as much time as I could with her. But I do have three brothers and dad too, so I knew she was in good hands. I just had to think about what my mom would want. She wanted me to go back and keep doing my thing and pursue my dreams. She’s a strong woman.”
“She is probably the toughest woman I've ever, ever known. I'd say she's the hardest worker in the house. She was always just so busy with herself, just cooking, cleaning, looking after us, taking the kids to school and picking us up and dropping me off at training every day. It'd be pitch black outside and she'd be there waiting at football for me. She just loved doing it too. It didn't matter if she was tired or whatever, there was always one mood with mom and it was always happy and seeing her kids. She’s definitely the toughest woman I've ever met.”James Ferguson-Reynolds
Ferguson-Reynolds returned to the States motivated. Not only to add on to his dominant freshman season, but aided by an additional desire to take advantage of every moment.
“I remember coming back and doing decks,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “Every deck I was just thinking to push through for my mom. She’d want me to push through and fly up the next deck. I used that with every rep I had. It made me put an extra 10 yards on the ball. ‘Just kick it further for mom, kick it further for mom.’ It probably helped, all the unknowns. I didn’t want to leave anything out there that I would regret later. It was always just a full go, go, go.”
As his sophomore season was about to kick off, he got a call from back home. His mom was cancer-free.
“It was right at the start of the season,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “She got those test results back and everything came back clear. I was so relieved.”
Motivated with a fresh perspective, the Aussie had the best punting season in program history. He led the nation with 49.7 yards per punt, the sixth-best season average in FBS history. He shattered the school record of 45.8 yards per punt originally set by Kyle Brotzman in 2008. Of his 55 punts, 52.3% (29) of them traveled 50 yards or more while 41.8% (23) landed inside the 20.
His entire family – his mom, dad and two brothers – visited JFR in the spring. In a heartwarming moment, he was surprised with the national statistical punting champion plaque from a special guest: his mom.
Boise State punter @jamesferguson10 received his national statistical champion plaque today and it was personally delivered from a surprise visitor from Down Under ??????#BleedBlue | #BuiltDifferent pic.twitter.com/sjCn4ouOxY
— Boise State Football (@BroncoSportsFB) April 19, 2024
As JFR found success on the field, Bronco fans, enthralled with his laid-back personality and can’t-miss mullet, began to show appreciation for their punter online. Memes were generated and quickly spread throughout the fanbase, and JFR’s witty nature joined into the fun.
“The fans are so awesome online,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. “I'm always seeing GIFs and random comments. It kind of just blew up last year. I’m one of those guys that doesn't let social media get to me, so I like having a bit of fun and tweeting out some funny things. I just love stirring stuff up and getting a laugh out of things. I think I'm one of those players that always just hits back and engages with fans and I think they love that.”
Ferguson-Reynolds channeled that online energy to a good cause prior to this season. Wanting to honor his mother’s battle and simultaneously give back to the Idaho community, he teamed up with Flock Cancer Idaho, a Boise-based nonprofit that raises awareness and funds to benefit local breast cancer fighters. JFR announced that for every one of his punts that lands inside the 20-yard line, he would donate $20 to the group.
The response from the fanbase was overwhelming.
“Within an hour of me posting it, there were like a million likes on it,” Ferguson-Reynolds said. There were people matching donations, and they still are week in and week out. It was awesome to see it take off so quickly.
His mom was equally touched.
“I surprised my mom with the idea,” he said. “Being so far away from my mom, I thought it would be a nice gesture. I couldn't be with her in those tough times and it was just a way to show my love and support for her from the other side of the world. My mom broke down in tears when she found out. She's received a lot of that too from the community around here. I wanted to keep it local and have some meaning. It’s cool to see that it’s bringing Boise together.”
As the Broncos enter the final stretch of their season, Ferguson-Reynolds will be reunited with his family. His parents decided to spend the back-half of the season with their son.
They first met James in the middle of his two homes, spending a week in Hawaii before watching the Broncos’ 28-7 victory over the Rainbow Warriors on Oct. 12. Then, the duo flew to Las Vegas, spending a week in Sin City before enjoying Boise State’s 29-24 primetime win over the Rebels.
The duo has spent the past two weeks staying with James in Boise, taking spontaneous road trips around Idaho during the week before joining 37,000+ fans on The Blue on the weekends. His parents will spend the next two weekends in San Jose and Laramie, Wyoming, respectively, before returning to the Treasure Valley for the regular season finale against Oregon State.
“They’re living pretty good,” James said. “They don’t get snow back home so they’re excited for a nice cold game in Wyoming. They're just following the team around and getting as many games in as possible. They've seen a lot. They go out sightseeing. They’ve been traveling all over Idaho and just exploring the countryside. They love it. They absolutely love it.”
When they stick around in Boise for the night, JFR absolutely reaps the benefits.
“My mom wants to make my life easy while she’s here so I come home to home-cooked meals every night,” he said. “It’s awesome that I don't have to think about dinner anymore so I don't want her to leave. It’s been really fun. I like having them here. It's that mental break from football and school that I can use to get away and be back with family again. It’s so good to catch up and go through life. It's pretty cool.”
With his family along for the ride, JFR is locked in on producing for this team, and helping the Broncos take advantage of each and every opportunity.
“You hear the noise everywhere,” he said. “This team is just different. This group is so hungry, week in and week out. We don't want to win - we want to dominate. This group is just so unbelievably hungry to go out there and dominate teams week in and week out. No matter who’s on the turf, we want to put the ball down and go to work.”
Ferguson-Reynolds and the Broncos will next take the field against San Jose State on Saturday, Nov. 16. The game will kick off at 5 p.m. MT and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.