Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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30 AUGUST 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY JACK SOBLE A labama and Clemson played one of the best college foot- ball games of the 21st century on Jan. 9, 2017. One young man who watched it live on the morning of Jan. 10 will never forget it. James Rendell, 16 years old and a bud- ding Australian rules football player at the time, saw the Tigers complete their game- winning drive with his dad, Matt, in his hometown of Melbourne. Matt Rendell, a legendary Australian rules football player, floated an idea for the first time: "Maybe you could do this." "He suggested that if my Australian rules football career doesn't work out the way I want to, I should try my hand at punting in America," James Rendell said. "Ever since we had that conversa- tion, it was in the back of my mind." Six years and six months later, James Rendell was not getting what he wanted out of his Aussie rules — or "footy" — career. And in June 2023, tragedy struck his family. Matt Rendell passed away suddenly at 64. With the man — his role model who sowed the seed of trying his hand at American football — gone, Rendell made an impactful decision. He fully committed to Prokick Australia, a training company dedicated to turning Aussie rules football players into college football punters. "It was something that I always wanted to pursue," Rendell said. "Once my dad passed away, I knew it was something I needed to pursue." Rendell originally committed to Hawai'i before receiving his Notre Dame offer April 18. It would have been his dad's 65th birthday. "He'd be pretty proud," Rendell said. "It feels like he's with me on this jour- ney, watching over me." BREAK ME DOWN, BUILD ME UP There's no backstory behind Rendell's "Thor" nickname aside from, well, look at him. "He's pretty well built," Prokick Aus- tralia co-founder Nathan Chapman told Blue & Gold Illustrated. "He's a good- looking rooster. It's pretty easy to come up with that one." Chapman knew Rendell's father; he started his footy career with the Brisbane Bears around the time Matt Rendell fin- ished his. He respected Matt Rendell as an "elite player and a great human," and he could see the talent with James Rendell — who stands 6-foot-6, 219 pounds — when he first reached out to join his program. "He's a big lad," Chapman said. "He had a strong leg, and the fundamentals were there that suited becoming a punter. His leg strength was exceptional." Chapman can spot talent. Since its founding in 2007, Prokick has been un- equivocally successful at producing punt- ers for college football and eventually the NFL. While Rendell is Notre Dame's first Australian punter, in many parts of the A DREAM COME TRUE Ex-Australian rules football player James Rendell had a goal of punting for an American college, and now that will happen at Notre Dame Rendell trained at Prokick Australia, a company that trains Australian rules football players to be college punters in America. (From left to right, Irish special teams coordinator Marty Biagi; Rendell; his mom, Leonie; and his brother, Daniel.) PHOTO COURTESY RENDELL FAMILY