Countdown to kickoff: Punter Brad Wing, No. 38, became unlikely star player at LSU

Jul 27, 2023 Updated 7 hrs ago All-American 2011-12 All-SEC 2011 Of all the stars that came out of the 2011 LSU team that reached the BCS National Championship Game — players like Tyrann Mathieu, Odell Beckham Jr. , Morris Claiborne and Sam Montgomery — the Tigers’ punter from down under may have been the most unlikely one of all. Left-footed Australian Brad Wing became something of an off-brand sensation on LSU’s 2011 team, for good or occasionally for worse, on his way to earning All-American honors.

Few Tiger fans are likely to forget Wing’s booming punts, or his fake punt run for a would-be touchdown in that season’s 41-11 romp over Florida that was erased because Wing was flagged for taunting. Who ever heard of a punter being penalized for taunting? Overall, though, Wing was excellent at his job. He averaged 44.

4 yards per kick in 2011 with only 6 total return yards allowed and had a 44. 8-yard average in 2012, also earning All-American honors that season. All told, 48 of his 118 punts were downed inside the opponents’ 20, and his 44.

6-yard school average was the best in program history. Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1991, Wing played Australian Rules Football for 15 years — “ever since I could walk,” he said — before attending high school in Baton Rouge at Parkview Baptist. But there was American football in his veins as well, as his father, David, punted for the Detroit Lions and the Scottish Claymores in the NFL Europe league.

Wing surprisingly decided to forego his last two years of eligibility to head to the NFL. Wing went undrafted but did go on to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants and is currently on the roster of the XFL's San Antonio Brahmas. .