Fact or Fiction: The tale of Texas Tech's dual-threat punter.
Texas Tech's punter signee Dominic Panazzolo is unlike your average punter for a variety of reasons. When you describe him, Panazzolo’s story sounds more like the legend of Paul Bunyan than the story of a college football punter. For starters, Panazzolo grew up in Australia playing Australian rules football and is pretty unique in that he is a proficient “dual-threat” punter, being able to kick with his left or right foot.
Oh, and he measures in at about 6-foot-5 and roughly 210 pounds, possessing a frame more like a tight end or a red zone receiver, than a punter.
Despite growing up in Australia, Panazzolo was introduced to American football at a very young age and once he learned he could go to school for free from just kicking a football, he was hooked.
“I grew up kind of different than most Australian kids. I was exposed to American football at a very young age. When I was at the age of 13 my dad exposed me to it. He turned on the TV once to a LSU vs. Florida game, and he was explaining it all to me. It really got me intrigued because you could go to school and get it paid for just be kicking a ball. I was always told that I had a strong leg growing up, and I could kick it really far. Ever since I was 13, in the back of my mind I knew I always wanted to play football in America. Then when I turned 17/18, I really worked to pursue the game.”
Panazzolo got the chance to pursue his dream of playing American football on the big stage in August of 2015 when he moved from Australia to Utah to punt for Snow College. From Day 1 it was obvious Panazzolo had a knack for booting the football. He averaged 42 yards per punt this past season and downed 22 of his 75 punts inside the 20 over the past two seasons. He also had a long of 72 yards.
Next up was Panazzolo’s recruitment. After receiving a lot of interest from a variety of schools, Texas Tech’s special teams coach, Joe Robinson, did something that set the Tech program above the rest: He offered Panazzolo a full-ride scholarship and immediately, Panazzolo was hooked.
“I had been talking to a few schools but none of them were really budging on committing, but when Texas Tech offered me and brought me in on an official visit, it just took the weight off of my shoulders. I felt like I had a future. It felt natural to commit there, and I’m excited to go there and have a great career.”
“Joe Robinson, the special teams coach, I think is the man, and he is one of the best special teams coaches in the country. He really sold me on the program. He is going to give me the freedom to do a lot of things on punt. I think there will be a lot of things that a lot of colleges and special team coverage units have never seen before, so I’m really excited for that creativity he is giving me and the freedom to do what I want.”
For those unfamiliar with the art of punting, what does it look for Panazzolo to be given more “creativity” from a punter’s perspective and how does his ambidextrous kicking come into play?
“I’ve been lucky enough to have played Australian rules football, so I became very good at kicking with both feet. Here at Snow College, we predominately used the rugby-style kick. You’ll see a lot of rugby left and rugby right with my left and right foot. Due to the way I grew up playing, we will also probably run some fakes, some fake runs and passes and screens and stuff like that. It should be a lot of fun.”
“I’m predominately a right-footed punter, but I think in the situation of maybe being on the 50-yard-line going in, you might see the left foot come into play. You probably won’t see the left foot as much, but it tricks the punt return team and really takes them by surprise. They have to be aware of that.”
Panazzolo committed to Texas Tech in October after his official visit, but his dream of playing football became a reality when he signed his National Letter of Intent on Signing Day this past Wednesday. In doing so, it also became a milestone for Texas Tech as Panazzolo is one of the few specialists who have signed on Signing Day as a scholarship athlete.
“This is something I’ve been waiting on for a good part of my life and now that it’s happening, I’m very excited.”
“It is a real honor (to be on scholarship) considering I’ve been told that I’m the only specialist on scholarship there. I’ve been lucky enough to use that to my advantage and prove what I can do and make special teams better considering how it went last year.”
While Panazzolo may have proved himself worthy of a scholarship from head coach Kliff Kingsbury and special teams coach Joe Robinson, the next step is convincing a Texas Tech fan base that spending a full scholarship on a punter was worth it.
“I think Australian punters are really gaining a lot of attention over the past five or so year. The last three or four Ray Guy winners have been Australian. It’s really changing special teams. I think Texas Tech wanted to do that, so they took a shot with an Australian like me. Most Australian punters come from an athletic Australian football background. We aren’t just two step punters. We can run, throw, kick, and we have that athletic skill and can do things like the other athletes can, like a wide receiver. I think we are extremely valuable to the punter position and I’m excited to show that to the Texas Tech fans.”
As an aside: Panazzolo made headlines this December with this wild Twitter video. He confirmed that he did in fact hit the ball.
“I got a lot of questions about that. It was a 12-gauge shotgun, so the pellets are fairly small. So we went to see the football and cut open the football and there was a bunch of shotgun pellets in there from when I hit the football.”
And thus the legend of the 6-foot-5 punter who can punt with either foot, make tackles, run the ball, throw the ball, and shoot footballs out of the air with shotguns, was born.