It doesn't take much for Bailey Ettridge to put things in perspective for himself while living out a dream and competing for a starting spot on Oregon football's makeshift practice fields outside the Ducks' in-progress state-of-the-art indoor practice facility aside Autzen Stadium. Not even two years ago, the 28-year-old transfer punter was doing that same work in Australia — using torches and plasma cutters to size metal pieces, joining metals and doing various other construction work — though not on any projects of quite that scale. "When I look out there, I’m like, I could still be doing that in Australia," Ettridge said. "I’m here on the other side, watching them do it, playing football."
One year ago, Ettridge had never played in front a crowd of over 500, had never played in a college football game and until halfway through 2025, had not truly considered punting in America as wholly viable. The Geelong, Australia-born Ettridge had been playing Australia rules football since he was 5 years old and started work in construction at the age of 16. Though he'd heard of Prokick Australia, an organization with aims to prepare Australian footballers for American football punting and securing scholarships for athletes, he continued his construction work while playing Aussie football until Prokick came to his town not even two years ago. "It was either now or never," Ettridge said. "Why not give it a shot? What’s the worst that could happen? I could fail and go back to Australia or it all works out. I’m glad I did it, for sure." After a trial with Prokick, the organization took Ettridge in, taught him the fundamentals and basics differences of punting versus what he had been doing while playing Australian rules football, and in less than a year Ettridge was the starting punter at Nevada as a 27-year-old freshman. Ettridge recalls his first game for the Wolf Pack at 110,000-seat Beaver Stadium at Penn State as a "culture shock" after playing in front of sparse crowds in Australia. "It was nuts," Ettridge said. "Couldn’t even really explain it to people back home on how it felt ... I had the headphones on in the locker room before so I couldn’t really hear the crowd, ran out and it was, I couldn’t even describe it."
The older college football player said his levelheaded approach helped him through those early days on the field and led to immediate success for Nevada. Among players with at least 45 punts last season, Ettridge ranked in the top 30 nationally in punting average (44.7 yards per punt), and he knew at the end of the season better opportunities could be on the way. As soon as he entered the transfer portal, Oregon called. James Ferguson-Reynolds, who just wrapped up a great season for the Ducks in 2025 and is from the same program and hometown as Ettridge, chatted with him about what Oregon was like when Ettridge was debating on a transfer school. It was a natural fit, per special teams coach Joe Lorig and Ettridge. "Those guys just have a really specific skill set," Lorig said. "In Australia, they literally grow up kicking the ball to each other. They play what they call footy, and it's as natural to them as throwing a ball was to me as a kid. It's just something they do." Now just a few weeks from the beginning of the season, Lorig said Ettridge is the clear favorite in the punting competition to replace Ferguson-Reynolds despite an ongoing competition. Lorig said Ettridge's savviness, along with his maturity and older age, have put him ahead of teammates Michael Sbuttoni and Jack Nicoli, both freshmen. "It's clear that Bailey is in the lead," Lorig said. "It's not a secret. He knows that. The other players know that. But the other players are pushing every single day to make him better." But so far, Ettridge has taken advantage of the limited opportunities he's received in less than two years of working on being an American football punter. He said entering fall camp he couldn't envision his younger self, at just 18 or 19 years of age, doing what he's doing now. "I think you can get in your own head as a young kid, especially in the crowds that college football plays in front of," Ettridge said. "As an older guy I was super levelheaded coming into last year." Though Ettridge has his eyes on eventually making an NFL roster, or trying out for the Canadian Football League if that doesn't work out, Oregon's ongoing construction serves as a daily reminder for how far he's come and how much it means to be a Duck. Ettridge will get his first run as a Duck likely against another Prokick standout in Boise State's Oscar Doyle Sept. 5 at Autzen Stadium.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football and women’s basketball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com. This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: How 28-year-old former welder became favorite for Oregon punting job