National Signing Day 2019: Punter signs with Miami (Fla.) on Wednesday, Australia time

Tom Gatto

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National Signing Day 2019: Punter signs with Miami (Fla.) on Wednesday, Australia time image

Louis Hedley and the Miami Hurricanes earned themselves National Signing Day notice by being early — really early — to the party.

This wasn't a 12:01 a.m. ET deal, either; we're talking mid-evening U.S. time, morning in Hedley's native Australia. The junior college punter signed his letter of intent Down Under, where it was already Wednesday, Feb. 6.

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The official announcement on Twitter then featured a jacked, flexing Hedley wearing The U gear:

The 6-4, 215-pound Hedley began playing American football in 2017 after years in Australian Rules football. He shared his story with Canes Insight last December after his campus visit:

“I had always had a really good kick and everyone said I should go over to America and be a punter. I didn’t really know what to do until I found out that there was an academy in Australia called ‘Pro Kick Australia.’ I reached out to them and I had a tryout and they said I had a chance to go higher, go to college football and a chance to make the NFL."

He also said he had never watched an American football game (college or pro) before suiting up for City College of San Francisco. It looks as though he was a quick learner. He averaged 38.6 yards on 45 punts, and he pulled off a few fakes, to boot (video from Hudl). He knew not to bounce the ball when running.

He told Canes Insight he redshirted for the 2018 season so he could have three years of NCAA eligibility instead of two. The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports Hedley will be put to work right away and will be expected to upgrade Miami's special teams.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.