Jock 2 Jock: A Rock108 Podcast - "Kickoff With Tory Taylor"

Thanks for downloading this episode of the Jock to Jock podcast presented by Rock 108 and sponsored by I'm On Communications.

Experience the I'm On Difference.

I'm Brian Marshall.

I'll be joined by Tori Taylor.

Number nine, your punter for the Iowa football team.

Next.

Reliable internet service at the speed you need?

Sounds great!

Now add 24-7 customer service and no data caps?

Is this heaven?

No, it's Imon!

Internet packages as low as $47 per month with speeds up to one gig, so you can stream, game, work from home, or have a full house doing all of the above.

With Imon, your internet is fast, reliable, and backed by the best customer care.

That's the Imon difference!

Visit go.imon.net slash radio and switch to Imon today.

You're residential customers only, not available in all areas.

conditions apply.

Well, it's jock to jock.

Rock 108 podcast and we're at season number two.

I'm Brian Marshall and I'm joined by my guest last season.

We had Jordan Bohan and on from the Iowa basketball team.

Now this year we've got somebody from the Iowa football team.

And as we're leading into Iowa football season, Tory Taylor, the punter for the Iowa football team.

Number nine joins me.

Yeah.

Thanks very much for having me on.

I'm really looking forward to it.

And yeah, get a tour of the Hawkeye fans out there.

I wanted to have you on from day one.

And there's a couple of reasons why.

Some of the accolades that you've received so far this year.

But the fact of the matter is we don't hear a lot from somebody that's in the position that you're at on a football team.

And then you've got a unique story as well.

Tell me a little bit about growing up, where you were at in Australia.

Yeah.

So I grew up in about 45 minutes south of Melbourne, just so long as called the Mornington Peninsula.

And yeah, I had a great upbringing.

Obviously two parents and I've got three brothers, one older, two younger.

So yeah, we all played sport and my youngest now, he's really beaten to his sport as well.

So we all grew up playing Australian rules football and then I kind of stopped playing probably from the ages 15 to 18, just because I wasn't really enjoying it anymore.

And then, yeah, started playing football again, but then I joined, I got in conversation with Nathan Chapman, who runs Pro Kick Australia.

back home in Melbourne.

And yeah, I just said that I was interested in coming over and playing college football.

And then yes, I went down for a try and yeah, Carlos went from there and here I am.

Australian rules football is not like we know football here in the United States.

Would you mind explaining it a little bit?

I mean, it's kind of hard to explain without seeing it.

But it's it's a hell of a sport.

I usually just tell people we'll go watch it on YouTube or something like that, because then I get a better understanding of it.

But it's really just a big oval shaped field with a set of goal posts and a set of behind posts.

And it's six points if you get it through the big sticks and one point if you get it through the smaller ones to the left or right.

And you really just punt the ball around trying to get it through the goals.

That's just in simple terms.

But kind of like I said, if people took the time to just watch it for a couple of minutes, they'd probably get a greater understanding.

There's 18 teams that play professionally in the AFL, right?

Correct.

Was there any particular team that you followed or were a part of?

Yeah, I followed a team called the Richmond Tigers, which funnily enough, they're actually yellow and black.

So pretty much the same as the Hawkeye.

So yeah, seeing my team win three championships in the last five years.

So yeah, it was pretty stoked about that because it was certainly a lot of not so great times before that.

Yeah, I've followed them since I was probably three or four years of age.

So yeah, I've been following them for quite a while now.

So sports, as we know it here in the States, it's a lot of baseball, it's basketball, it's hockey, it's, you know, American style football.

In Australia, is it Australian rules football, what we call soccer?

What else is

watch?

There's a Australian football, soccer, cricket.

A lot of people watch the American sports over here back home.

Yeah, I've shown loose football and cricket at the two big sports in Australia.

So when you got involved with college football and coming over to Iowa, and I do want to talk about how you got involved at Iowa, what did your family think about that whole transition and coming over to the States for that?

Oh, they were obviously really excited for me.

It was really just a big opportunity.

And they knew that it was going to open a lot of doors for me, not even really from a football point of view, but just a life point of view, really.

Yeah, mom probably took it a little bit harder than dad.

But yeah, it was also one of those things that, yeah, kind of like I said, they were all really excited for me.

They knew it was going to be hard for me.

I knew it was going to be hard.

COVID probably didn't help.

But yeah, here I am.

And they'll be here next week.

So really looking forward to that.

They're coming to

watch

you play.

Yeah, for Iowa State.

And they haven't had a chance to see you play American style football in.

Yeah, that's correct.

I just turn on the TV back home in Australia and watch it.

So yeah, this will be the first time.

Does Iowa State compare to anything that you were used to previous?

No.

No, it was an absolute circus when we went and played there last year.

Is it fun to be back in front of fans again?

Yeah, well, my freshman year, I didn't really know any difference.

playing in front of no fans like that's all I really knew so it wasn't really that big of a deal to me but then yeah last year having the fans back was was great especially that home environment but I really enjoyed playing the away games as well like Iowa State Nebraska obviously Wisconsin didn't go the way we wanted to but playing at Maryland was fun for a half and then the 95% of the crowd had left but

Yeah, the way games are just as fun as the home games, in my opinion, depending where you play.

You were talking about that organization that you got involved with in Australia.

Can you tell me a little bit more about that?

Yeah, so ProGic Australia is really just a program that transitions guys from Australian rules football to college football punting.

Yeah, so Nathan Chapman probably started the organization.

or 12 or 13 years ago now and he's probably saved I think nearly 200 odd million in scholarship money so yeah there's a lot of guys that have benefited from that over the years and yeah there's really just been an influx of Aussie punters over here doing really the same as I'm doing just at different schools so yeah really lucky that his guidance and what he does really just yeah gets you ready for college football which is an easy

prepping

For what you're doing as far as punting is the technique different is how you prepare different.

How is that different from what you were doing before?

So yeah, coach will first and foremost the ball like the actual like tangible object itself that you play with that There's a smaller sweet spot on the ball over here than than it is back at home.

So it's it's harder kicking the ball

over here than it is back home.

But yeah, they get you ready for that.

Obviously, as soon as you're doing the program, you're punting American footballs.

And it's really just, it's hard to simulate a rush and simulate a game back home in Australia.

But yeah, we certainly did the best job we could.

And yeah, they really just get you ready from a mental standpoint.

Because really, that's what it is.

It's all upstairs in the mind.

Like with your drills.

I mean, how many times are you kicking there?

You're punting a ball per day roughly with

that?

Oh about a probably like 60 or 70 times a day four times a week probably yeah sometimes more sometimes less

When did you know you had it like it was like it was on let's make this happen

I'd always been a relatively big kick of the football in general when you first join you hit them okay then

It kind of gets to that stage where you really got to take a few steps back and just really work on things and kind of hone in on things.

And then, yeah, it probably took a few months before I really started to get that consistency and start hitting the balls that I wanted to hit.

And I wasn't just fluking them.

How do you start to get the idea of the black and gold of the Iowa football team?

Oh, that came about in late 2019.

Yeah, I didn't really know much about Iowa at all.

I wouldn't say I was hesitant about it, but like I said, I'd never heard of it.

Yeah, I kind of knew it was a place, but I never really heard much about the Hawkeye football program or anything like that.

But yeah, just got talking to the coaches and really just seemed like a good fit for me.

And I just thought, well, what have I got to lose?

I'll just do it.

And yeah, here I am, probably the best life decision I've ever made.

Is there any any place in Australia that kind of equals the climate of Iowa?

No,

not even close.

Not

even close.

Yeah, barely gets below

probably 35 degrees.

Crazy.

So then when you have to deal with that for the first time, how are you feeling about that?

Yeah, I didn't I don't enjoy winter at all.

Yeah, that's just the honest truth.

I really don't I don't think anyone does.

Yeah, I think like seeing snow and that

uh it was pretty cool but yeah that wears off the novelty of all that wears off pretty quickly and you get sick of it rather quickly but um yeah you just gotta you gotta deal with it just gotta do it don't have a choice

how often do you get back home

i'll go back once a year so i've been back twice uh since i since i got here so yeah i love it i love going back home i'll probably move back there when i'm when i'm done playing football whenever that'll be hopefully it's still a while down the track but

Yeah.

Yeah, I'll probably go back there.

But that's the plan.

Who knows?

It might happen or it might not happen.

Just go to wait and see.

Of course, that bridge when I get to it.

When you get back, obviously, you've got a bunch of friends and family that come back and see you.

Do Aussies have an American accent that they fake?

Because I know that Americans all the time try and fake an Australian accent and we don't do it.

Yeah, I can do an American accent.

I'm not going to on this podcast because I want to embarrass myself, but.

I can do one a lot better than what people here can do on a Australian one.

But yeah, when you get back home, I mean, what's the first thing that you do?

You hang out with the family?

You go out and have a couple of beers?

What you do?

Hanging out with the family.

What do I do this time?

I went and got a coffee with my brother, actually, on my first day back.

Yeah, I just probably enjoyed the food that I missed the most, whether it be chocolate or candy or certain dinners and things like that.

But yeah, really just hanging out with...

with friends and family that I only get to do for a few weeks of the year.

Does your mom have a particular dish that she makes that you're really all about?

Yeah, she does this savory minced pie, which I really like.

And I love pasta carbonara as well.

Yeah, well, those are my two favorite dishes.

But then my dad, well, he cooks on the odd occasion.

But yeah, he does a nice curry as well.

So obviously, mom does more than dad.

So what's the plan when they uh they make it up for the Iowa State game uh you're gonna treat them to something that uh specific to Iowa City or what do you got in mind?

Uh I'm yeah I'm really not too sure I should probably start thinking about that but I know on game day they're gonna do the whole title guy thing which is I've never experienced myself and I probably ever will but no maybe one day yeah they're pretty excited for that and

Yeah, I'll just show them around, show them around the stadium, show them around the facility and all the buildings and school and things like that.

Yeah, and just show them what I've been doing for the last couple of years.

So you're saying your family might be down for a game of flippy cup then?

Yeah, whatever that is.

My mom probably won't be interested in that, but then my 12-year-old brother obviously won't be, but yeah, I'm sure they did.

It sticks so hard to make the most of the experience while they're over here.

Does it make you smile?

Does it give you any butterflies that

The swarm comes out to back in black by AC DC.

Yeah, this is a bit of a guilty admission.

I didn't actually know that AC DC was an Australian band until probably maybe six months ago.

Yeah.

Yeah, I really had no idea until my dad, my parents told me.

I

honestly

had no idea.

So you stepped foot onto the field for Iowa for the very first time.

What's your feelings?

Do you recall how you felt at that point?

Now you're on an American football field.

Now you're getting ready for game time.

How do you feel the first snap that you take and you're about ready to do what you do

best?

During the game, I'm like a pretty confident person when it comes to games just because I feel like you just have to be confident and there's no point not believing in yourself or anything like that because it really just doesn't get you anywhere.

Yeah, it's as silly as it sounds and it might sound a bit cliche, but it's all a bit of a blur really sometimes.

I just kind of run out to the field, do my routine and punt the ball and you're really on and off within 20, 25 seconds.

So I think that's one thing that sometimes I'll tell others is like, anyone can can concentrate and the fact that you really only got to do it for 20, 25 seconds, it's really not that difficult.

Yeah, there's a little bit of nerves like I'd be lying.

Um, especially the first part of the game, just kind of getting that out of the way.

But then from there, once the game gets going, if I'm having a good day, then yeah, really want the ball in my hands, but that's out of my control.

And sometimes I don't want it in my hands because I just want to win.

Right.

So what goes through your mind after you come off the field, you've done your 20, 25 seconds out there, you've done what you do best.

What goes through your head?

You're just, you know, okay, focused on what the team needs to do to win at that point.

I'll talk to the special teams coordinator coach Woods and we'll just talk, who just feel like, oh, do you like that?

I was like, yeah, that's good.

Or if it's not the best pun, I'll just be like, yeah, this is what happened by a lot.

I've talked to the long snapper.

I'm just like, yeah, good snap.

We're all good.

And if a gunner runs down and makes a play, I'm always making sure that I thank them as well, because there's so much more that goes into it than me just punning the ball.

There's guys hustling their ass running down there, trying to get in people's faces.

But it's all.

Really just a bit of a blur sometimes but once I've kind of punted our defenses is really really good So it's always good to just sit down and watch those guys get to work

So you're closer to the defense than you are the offense at that point I guess

Yeah, because well when the offense is on the field I'm off to the sideline like in the corner like doing my routine and things like that Just making sure I'm ticking all the boxes to be ready So I'm still like looking over at the game to see what's happening to make sure when I've got to be ready

It's pretty strange sometimes because sometimes I feel like a quarter will go for an hour and then the second quarter will feel like it goes for five minutes.

Yeah, it's a strange game football.

But yeah, I'm usually just off to the sideline doing my thing.

But then when the defense is out there, I'm not needed because I'm not needed until the offense gets the ball.

So I kind of just soak it in and enjoy it because I feel like, yeah, everyone's got that kid in them.

You have to.

Well, and compared to Australian rules football where there's constant motion, there's yes, correct.

But he's moving.

American style football is stop, start, stop, start.

Like you said, it goes in very short bursts.

It's almost a chess match at that point.

Yeah.

Last year was your big year, 3,688 yards on 80 punts.

And now you got Mel Kuiper from ESPN.

You're on his board as one of the top punters.

Does that resonate with you at all?

Or do you just kind of like that's whatever?

To be frank, I really couldn't give a shit about any of that stuff because

I mean, that's just a matter of someone's opinion and I don't I don't really know Mel I mean someone sent me that just saying all good work, but I really don't pay attention to any of that stuff because Kind of like I said, that's just one person's opinion

really

like that's literally just one individual's opinion Yeah, they might be a little bit of credibility Behind it, but I really don't try to pay too much attention to that.

Yeah, it's cool like obviously

It gives you a degree of confidence, but yeah, I really don't pay too much attention to that because it's just really not that important.

And kind of like I've said a few times, it's one person's opinion.

Someone might have me at the bottom of the list, you never know.

I don't think a lot of people are going to have you at the bottom of the list after the year that you had last year.

Yeah, thank you.

What do you do right now at Iowa?

What's your focus?

What's your study?

You know, kind of going away off the field for just a minute.

Yeah, so I'm currently studying sports management.

I don't love school or anything like that, as I don't think anyone does.

But there's some courses that I think are a bit pointless.

But yeah, that's just that's my opinion.

But

did you go to university previous when you were at

home?

No, no.

So I took a gap between 2015 and 2020.

So it was about a five year period where I hadn't done any really much schoolwork or anything like that.

thought about going to university, but I don't know whether it's me or I'm sure there's a lot of people out there.

No, I really love school.

Yeah, they're one of them.

What are things that you're looking forward to this season?

I think like first and foremost, just to win as many games as we can, not get ahead of ourselves too much.

Going back to Indianapolis would be another great season and great accomplishment.

And that was just really just a fun weekend in general, regardless of the result.

Just a week leading up to it was great fun.

So that would be cool to go back there, but in terms of personal goals, it's really just been the best punter I can be.

I know it sounds a bit boring, but I'm not really like, I don't have any like statistical goals or anything like that.

Like, yeah, it'd be great to win awards and things like that, but I really don't worry about that.

As long as I'm having fun and being the best punter and person I can be and not letting my team

teammates down or coaches down, that's the most important things to me.

And not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but being the best punter you can be, would that mean playing professionally?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, that's obviously a goal of one of, a goal of mine.

Moving forward, that's still a little while away.

So I don't try to dwell on that too much, but that's a goal and doing everything I can to get there.

Do you have any tips or advice for those younger kids that are wanting to get involved?

Hell, even as a punter.

Yeah, I think as a punter, I think one people are really going to understand is that no one cares about how good your big ball is.

It's all about how the gap between your good and your bad because it's all about consistency and you see a lot of guys go to all these camps and yeah, it's great to get all these big balls out there.

But if there are any punters or keyers listening, consistency is everything.

It's not a pissing contest.

You know what I mean?

So are you, you're not necessarily looking for the longest you're looking for putting that other team as far back in their territory as you possibly can, right?

Yeah.

Well, I think the biggest thing is you want someone that's reliable.

If you've got someone you can't trust them because there's so many guys out there that will blast a 60 yarder on their next ball, 23 yards out of bounds.

Well, it's like, you can't trust them.

It's like, well, what do I know?

Like what ball am I going to get this next punt?

Whereas if you have someone that's a little bit more consistent,

doesn't have the biggest ball, but knows what, but you know what you're going to get.

Um, then yeah, I just think that's everything.

See kids, he's telling you right now.

It's not about how big your balls are.

It's about how consistent with your balls.

Yes, exactly.

Spot on.

Put that on a t-shirt for yourself.

All right.

So I thought we would wrap up our first edition of the jock to jock podcast.

I thought it kind of a fun little game would be the Marshall exchange program, meaning that if I came over to Australia.

Anything that you would teach me one of the first things out the gate as soon as I got off the plane.

What would you teach me?

Well, pardon my friends.

Don't be a and don't be scared of the snakes and spiders because they don't exist as much as people think.

So if I give one one bit of advice, just get out of your comfort zone and go and experience it all because it's not as bad as they think.

Why did they think that there are so many spiders?

It's just because I

really don't know.

Yeah, I don't know where that's come from.

I really have no idea.

where I live, I've never seen a snake.

Like, yeah, you'll see me like golf courses and things like that, but I'm sure you'd see them here.

Yeah.

And the spiders, you know, those are off in the desert somewhere, right?

Exactly.

Correct.

Well, I appreciate the geography lesson because you're welcome.

That's a good place to start.

Tori, anything else on this episode that you'd like to include for Rock 108 and P1 Nation?

Make sure that you're ready for a great season and we're all trying our hardest doing everything we can to perform for the everyone out there and

Um, yeah, sometimes things don't go away.

So I hope everyone understands that.

I know they won't, but hopefully if they hear it from me, they'll get a greater understanding that we're not going out there to lose.

So yeah.

It's interesting how you say that because a lot of sports teams, especially the Iowa faithful, boy, they sure like to, uh, they sure like to tell you what they think, don't they?

Yes.

Yes.

But, um, no, I mean, I'm sure people have seen on the catch.

drinking a milkshake made in the hot dog.

Um, no more than, and more, no more than people in the building, but yeah, each to their own.

They're also the ones that think there are a lot of snakes and spiders in Australia right now.

Exactly.

Otherwise,

Tori, I'm looking forward to our next episode coming up soon.

All right.

Awesome.

Thanks very much, Brian.

Appreciate it.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the jock to jock podcast presented by rock 108 and sponsored by I'm on communications experience.

The I'm on difference.

Reliable internet service at the speed you need?

Sounds great!

Now add 24x7 customer service and no data caps?

Is this heaven?

No, it's Imon!

Internet packages as low as $47 per month with speeds up to one gig, so you can stream, game, work from home, or have a full house doing all of the above.

With Imon, your internet is fast, reliable, and backed by the best customer care.

That's the Imon difference!

Visit go.imon.net slash radio and switch to Imon today!

You're residential customers only, not available in all areas of the

conditions apply.