You can still find Adam Korsak hanging around on the Rutgers football team’s practice field this spring, but you won’t find the Ray Guy Award-winning punter kicking any balls.
That is saved for Flynn Appleby, a redshirt freshman, who is tasked at taking over the punting job in 2023 for Korsak, who could hear his name called in the upcoming NFL Draft next week.
Appleby, who is also from Australia (Cohuna, Victoria) like Korsak, enrolled at Rutgers last summer and got to sit back and watch the All-American who set multiple NCAA and Rutgers records do his thing.
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“It’s been great. I got here last August before fall camp. It’s been an incredible time,” Appleby said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity. Adam Korsak and the coaching staff have been great and it’s been a great time.
“I really have Adam to thank for the whole opportunity of how it all came about, as well as John Smith, Nathan Chapman, and Tim Gleason, who was a former punter here, from Pro Kick Australia. I trained with them earlier on. Of course Adam was here and the process has been incredible. I was lucky to have last season to learn from Adam at his best. I learned more nuances and the aspects of punting and holding for field goals. He had an incredible career and I’m looking forward to seeing how the draft and everything goes for him.”
While nobody is going to put pressure on Appleby to just come right in and be as good as Korsak was, it wasn’t by accident that he joined the team. The Scarlet Knights and head coach Greg Schiano wanted to bring somebody in whose style and way of punting was like that of Korsak.
“I think part of the recruiting process was looking for somebody who had similar attributes to Adam. We’re similar in style and our skill sets,” Appleby said. “Every punter has their own different techniques and way of punting a little bit, so it’s just understanding that and trusting it. I’ve been refining it since I got here. It’s a whole new sport to learn and rules and that sort of stuff, too.”
And how has the 6-foot-2, 205-pounder done so far in spring practice?
“Flynn has done a nice job. He continues to do a nice job,” Schiano siad. “In the punting game, we got a big name to replace, and I think he’s doing a great job.”
Appleby is a former footballer for Collingwood in the Australian Football League. Those rules are similar to rugby and features punts. He was drafted sixth overall in the 2018 rookie draft and played in 11 games for the team from 2018-20. He then played junior football in the Ballarat Football League for both Ballarat and North Ballarat City and competed with the Greater Western Victoria Rebels in the NAB League before joining Pro Kick Australia making his way to Piscataway.
“I played Australian football for three years full-time,” Appleby said. “Didn’t play quite well enough and moved to a semi-pro kind of league for a year. I was looking to further my education. I was studying in Australia, but I wanted to change degrees and wanted to pursue a sport. I knew other people who had come over from Pro Kick.”
Korsak believes Appleby is the right person to succeed him and thinks he will do just fine. Like with anything, it takes some adjusting, knows he’ll put in the work.
“The great thing is he came in July. He shadowed me for that first season and going into this spring,” Korsak said last month at Pro Day. “I think that helps a lot. He’s a little bit older as well. He’s professional and he’s mature. He understands what it takes to be great. Those two aspects help, but until you’re in there and it’s live, you don’t know what exactly to expect. He’s in a great position though.”
Appleby said he has some family down in Florida and one day he hoped to visit them. He didn’t expect to make it to the United States playing college football originally, but here is getting ready to play Big Ten football.
“I’ve traveled a bit before in the past in Europe, but I had never been to America. I had some cousins actually down in Florida. They golf, actually,” Appleby said. “I’ve always looked to come over at some point, and maybe it’s a bit earlier than I thought, but it’s been a great time. Hopefully I’ll be able to see more of the country, but right now I’m focused on football and getting an education. I’m loving it.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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