{"id":95392,"date":"2025-08-25T19:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95392\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T19:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:47:07","slug":"billy-gowers-ex-afl-gun-stuns-americans-in-his-college-football-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/95392\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Gowers: Ex-AFL gun stuns Americans in his college football debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-AFL<\/a> star Billy Gowers has stunned Americans on their home turf after his impressive debut as a punter in college football.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old played 33 games for the Western Bulldogs and was the side\u2019s leading goalkicker in 2018, but Gowers has been a busy man since his time in the league wrapped up in 2020.<\/p>\n

Life after the AFL has seen Gowers lead the VFL for goals kicked in 2024 with 50 for Port Melbourne.<\/p>\n

It garnered interest from the Pro Kabaddi League and he has now even opened a barbershop.<\/p>\n

However, the forward has started his newest venture in the US, playing college American football for the University of Hawai\u2019i as a punter.<\/p>\n

Aussies<\/a> have started to become a more frequent sight in American Football, with many being scouted to play punter.<\/p>\n

During their season opener on the weekend, Gowers left Americans stunned for two reasons after the commentators introduced him as \u201ca 29-year-old Aussie who can kick with either foot\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gowers then boomed a punt for 67 yards (61m), but it wasn\u2019t the kick that left Americans shocked \u2014 with many taken aback by his ability to kick with both feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cDawg both feet is wild,\u201d a person commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmbipedal is very impressive (for real),\u201d another chimed in.<\/p>\n

Others were impressed with the height of the punt, with one viewer saying: \u201cAir traffic gotta clear the skies for Hawaii games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another point that left many stunned was Gowers\u2019 age. Entering his first season of college as a 29-year-old freshman will easily make him the oldest player in most games this season, with players typically in the 18-23 range.<\/p>\n

But Gowers wasn\u2019t the biggest talking point from the win.<\/p>\n

That came from another international student with a handy foot, Kansei Matsuzawa.<\/p>\n

The kicker for Hawai\u2019i has moved to America from Japan after teaching himself how to kick a football by watching YouTube videos.<\/p>\n

The self-taught skill paid off big time, with the 26-year-old named the teams main kicker this season.<\/p>\n

In his first game, Matsuzawa made all three field-goals, including a game winner as time was counting down to give his side a 23-20 win over Stanford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-AFL star Billy Gowers has stunned Americans on their home turf after his impressive debut as a punter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[638,64,63,593,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-95392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}