Dylan Joyce isn’t just flipping field position-he’s flipping the script on what it means to be a college football punter. The Miami Hurricanes’ specialist has taken an unconventional path to the ACC spotlight, trading in the oval ball of Australian Rules Football for the spiraling punts of American football. Hailing from Kyabram, Australia, Joyce made the leap to the U.S. gridiron through Prokick Australia, a now-familiar pipeline that’s been turning Aussie athletes into elite punters at the college level.
At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, Joyce doesn’t just bring size-he brings a skill set honed on the wide-open fields of Australia, where precision kicking is an art form. Before arriving in Coral Gables, he played at Assumption College back home, but it didn’t take long for him to make an impact in the States.
As a true freshman in 2023, Joyce was thrown right into the action and handled it like a veteran. He played in every game, averaged just shy of 44 yards per punt, and pinned 15 of them inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
That kind of performance didn’t go unnoticed-he earned All-ACC Honorable Mention and a spot on 247Sports’ True Freshman All-American Team.
And if you needed a signature moment from that debut season, look no further than his 60-yard bomb against Florida State. He averaged 49 yards per punt in that game alone, a major reason Miami was able to stay in control of field position.
His sophomore season in 2024 was quieter-but not because of any drop-off in performance. Miami’s offense simply didn’t give him many chances.
Joyce punted just 25 times all year, and only once did he exceed three punts in a single game. Still, he made the most of his limited reps, dropping 11 punts inside the 20 and maintaining his consistency.
Fast forward to this season, and Joyce is back in the mix with a heavier workload-and he’s delivering. Through 15 games, he’s handled 49 punts with an average of 44.2 yards per kick.
He’s already pinned 21 of those inside the 20, showing the kind of touch and control that coaches dream about. And then came the SMU game, where Joyce unleashed a career-long 73-yarder-an absolute rocket that flipped the field and turned heads.
But it’s not just about the big legs and big numbers. Joyce’s work in high-pressure moments has been instrumental during Miami’s postseason push.
In the playoff opener against Texas A&M, he was called on five times, totaling 194 yards and pinning two inside the 20 in a gritty 10-3 win. Against Ohio State, he helped tilt the field again with a 60-yard punt and two more downed deep in Buckeye territory-key contributions in a game where every inch mattered.
In the semifinal clash with Ole Miss, Joyce punted three times for 144 yards, keeping the Rebels pinned back and giving Miami’s defense room to breathe. Earlier in the season, he averaged 42.6 yards on five punts in a win over Notre Dame. And in a rare twist, he had the night off against South Florida-Miami’s offense was so dominant, he never had to take the field.
Across his three seasons in Coral Gables, Joyce has averaged 43.6 yards per punt with 47 of them landing inside the 20. That kind of consistency, combined with his ability to shine in big moments, has earned him national recognition. He’s been featured on the “Ray’s 8” list-a weekly honor that helps determine the Ray Guy Award, given to the top punter in college football.
From Kyabram to the College Football Playoff, Dylan Joyce is proving that great punters don’t just come from American high schools anymore. He’s part of a growing wave of international talent reshaping the special teams landscape-and he’s doing it one perfectly placed punt at a time.