Adam Korsak, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Australian-born punter, can unload some boomers when the circumstances dictate.
But the emphasis is generally on placement and consistency, as opposed to sheer distance.
The yardage is noteworthy all the same. His average of 47.5 yards per punt, if maintained over the final two regular-season games, will go in the books as the third-best in franchise history.
Even a modest improvement would enable him to top his 2023 average of 47.6 — the Roughriders’ second-best of All-Time, behind the 48.8 Jon Ryan posted in 2019.
“With the kicking game and the specialists these last few years, there’s a lot of excellent ones across the league,” Roughriders Head Coach Corey Mace said, “and you can’t have that conversation without Adam.”
A conversation with Korsak reveals the methodology and mindset behind his punting prowess.
“I don’t really hit an A-plus ball, compared to some of the other punters, but I don’t really hit a B ball, either,” the West Division’s 2023 All-Star punter noted.
“It’s so consistent that it’s reliable, and that’s kind of what I strive to do.”
That was the spectacularly successful formula when Korsak attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.
Over five seasons (and 58 games) with the Scarlet Knights, he punted 349 times for a 43.9-yard average. Forty-two per cent of his punts pinned the opponent inside its 20-yard line.
He established an NCAA single-season standard for net punting average (45.25) in 2021. (The net is determined by subtracting return yardage from the distance of the punt.)
In 2022, Korsak followed up by winning the prestigious Ray Guy award as the premier punter in U.S. college football.
“I had success in college with no return yards and no touchbacks and that added up to a good net,” said Korsak, the third overall pick in the CFL’s 2023 Global Draft.
“A lot of my punts were between 36 and 46. There wasn’t really much straying outside of that.
“Every now and then, I could hit a 60 or a 70 if I got a good roll or if I kind of ran off the returner one way and kicked back the other way — and if I had a good wind and I was able to be attacking and that was what the situation called for. But most of the time, I was trying to hit that 43-yard ball that we could cover.
“In the CFL, having no fair catch and the five-yard rule, I think location is super-important so that’s what I try to do — hit a ball that we can cover and one where everyone knows where it’s going.”
That is the product of possessing and striving to maximize talent.
“Especially early on in my college career, I just did so many reps,” Korsak said. “I would constantly drill reps, reps, reps, reps. I just tried to get as consistent as possible.
“I used to put garbage cans out at the stadium at Rutgers and I just tried to kick to the garbage can. That was the way I used to train.
“I used to take 10 balls and put two garbage cans at either end and try to hit them. Doing that, I got so many reps — especially during COVID.”
With so much being shut down during the pandemic period, Korsak used what could have been idle time to focus on punting with precision.
“A lot of punters would kind of set up their phone and just try to hit the biggest ball possible,” he said. “I was more interested in just trying to be consistent, especially the way we did it in college.”
Did Korsak, an avid golfer, ever achieve a specialist’s equivalent of a hole-in-one by parking a punt in the garbage can?
“It was pretty rare that it went in,” he replied, “but if I could get a five-yard ring around it, that was kind of a goal.”
A golf analogy can also be used to explain the punting philosophy to which Korsak subscribes.
“A lot of the longest drivers on Tour aren’t necessarily the most accurate drivers on Tour,” he said. “Sometimes the shortest drivers on Tour are the most accurate.
“I try to be in the middle. Sometimes you take a little bit off the punt and you can gain a little more accuracy, which I think is best in the long run.
“If you have seven punts a game for the whole season, that adds up to the consistency, which is reliable. Coaches like that and I think the players do as well.”
Mace is certainly a fan.
“Adam’s an outstanding human being and he takes his job extremely seriously,” the Roughriders’ chief strategist said.
“We’re grateful to have him and we’re looking forward to having him as a weapon moving forward.”
