Australian kicker Luke Larsen, Villanova’s new punter, isn’t letting his age define him

He gave up a lucrative business in his native country for a chance to earn his degree. Now, the 33-year-old is pursuing his third degree in his final season of college football eligibility.

Villanova punter Luke Larsen is playing his sixth and final college football season. At 33 years old, he's one of the oldest players in college football. Read moreCourtesy of Sideline Photos

by Devin Jackson

Published Sept. 10, 2025, 8:00 a.m. ET

Luke Larsen’s football story began in Melbourne, Australia, watching the Eagles and New England Patriots play in Super Bowl LII in 2018. Seven years later, his journey has him playing just outside the city that helped spark his interest in the sport.

Villanova’s newest punter, now in his sixth and final season of college football, has made headlines throughout his college career, but less for his play on the field. Larsen recently turned 33 years old, and was thought to be the oldest player in the Football Bowl Subdivision last year as a kicker for East Carolina.

Larsen was 26 when he watched the Eagles win their first Super Bowl. He watched alongside a high school friend who knew former Rutgers punter Adam Gorsack, who went on to play for the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Gorsack had gone through the Australia Prokick program — an organization founded by former NFL punter Nathan Chapman and kicker John Smith in 2007 to help train and turn Australian athletes into punters. Larsen’s friend suggested that he try it out.

Larsen, who was running a fleet truck business, working as a national transport manager, and serving as a disc jockey in Australian nightclubs, didn’t think much of the suggestion at the time.

About six months later, while in the process of selling his business to his father and figuring out what was next, Larsen was drawn back to the sport after a conversation with former Eagles punter Cameron Johnston, also from Melbourne, whom he played junior football against.

“I ran into him, and he told me his story and how he’d gone to Ohio State and won a national championship there [in 2014], and was just about to try and win the job at the Eagles from the guy that had played in the Super Bowl the year before [Donnie Jones],” Larsen said. “He assured me there was a great path that he took, and he was very happy that he took it, and I should really give it a go. And that was January in 2019 and by, I think it was May or June [of that same year], I had a couple of scholarship offers.”

The first school interested in Larsen was East Carolina, and he chose the program to attend because it “was concrete and wanted me there in January.” So Larsen packed his bags and moved 10,000 miles to chase his football dream, leaving the life he had established in Australia behind at 27 years old.

“It was interesting because it was a different period where I was looking at it different, it wasn’t just like, ‘Oh, I get to go to college.’ It was more that I’m about to go spend four years of my life working toward a degree, which is going to help me with my future career prospects,” Larsen said.

‘They’re being nurtured’

Smith’s first impression was exactly what a scouting report would read on Larsen now: big, physical, and he has a big kick.

Prokick Australia’s head coach, who played in the CFL and the NFL in the 1980s, recalls Larsen being a part of the program at the same time with current and future NFL players, and says Villanova’s 6-foot-2, 225-pound punter “fit really well.”

“He was one of the characters, you know, and I always knew he’d go really well [at the college level],” Smith said. “He’s really strong and he’s self sufficient, he’s smart, he can read a room. … I’ve always had a great relationship with him.”

On average, Smith estimates the Prokick Australia program is a 12- to 14-month process. Within three months, Smith says he can tell whether a player will become an elite punter.

The sole mission of the program, Smith says, is to “educate young men through sport.” From attempting to replicate a college strength and conditioning program to setting up live scrimmages to give punters a gamelike feel, Smith believes the program is designed to set up Australian athletes who go through it for success.

“There’s a lot of guys here, and there’s a lot of competition, but from a technical point of view, they’re being trained, but also the being looked after, they’re being nurtured,” Smith said of his program. “We’re just preparing the players [who] come in to just not be overwhelmed by anything and just come in as if, ‘OK, I know the game. I know what I’m doing, I know my place in the game. I understand structure, understand terminology.’”

Smith says about 90 punters playing in the FBS and Football Championship Subdivision have gone through the Prokick Australia program, including Penn State’s Riley Thompson and Temple’s Dante Atton. Current NFL punters Michael Dickson, Jeremy Crawshaw, and Tory Taylor also participated.

‘I’m about to go get my third degree’

Larsen began his final season of eligibility with two degrees: His undergrad degree is in industrial distribution logistics and he earned his masters in business administration during the spring. He’s working on his master of public administration degree at Villanova, which he’s on track to get next spring.

Across five seasons at East Carolina, Larsen averaged 40.8 yards across 174 punts. But what about the elephant in the room regarding his age?

“I can see that some guys are, I would say, nervous is probably the best way to put it. They don’t know how they can joke with me and things like that,” Larsen said. “But once everyone then speaks to me for more than 20 seconds, they realize that pretty much I’m just like them, I’m in the same period of life as them. It’s just sometimes I might have some advice that helps them out.

“I think it comes down to understanding other people’s perception of it,” he added regarding his age … When you see I’m [33] years old, everyone thinks, ‘This guy’s been in college for four to eight years, is chasing money somewhere, doesn’t want to go work.’ Whereas for me, it doesn’t matter my age. I’m about to go get my third degree.”

Added Smith: “If you think about what he’s trying to pursue, he’s doing this for educational reasons, as much as football reasons. That says everything about him. To have someone like Luke who’s pursuing an academic goal, all the rest of the [expletive] he’s actually put to bed very quickly.”

In Villanova’s season-opening win over Colgate, Larsen punted five times for a 39.6 yard average, but two of his punts dropped inside the 20-yard line. The Wildcats have Penn State up next at Beaver Stadium, where he’ll reunite with Thompson and former Villanova coach Matt Colangelo, who recruited Larsen to the Wildcats and is now an analyst with the Nittany Lions.

Larsen plans to play pro football if the opportunity is there, wherever that may be, but Smith believes the punter has the knowledge and ability to coach someday, when his football career ends.

“To coach him, you better know your stuff,” Smith said. “He could be a great coach now, special teams coach. He’d be tremendous. He’s very forceful, he’s very decent. He’s extremely intelligent, and he’s always got a plan.”