Jack Brooks started playing football at age four, in the dry heat of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. His whole family would go to Australian Football League games every weekend, cheering on whoever was in town that weekend, especially the North Melbourne Kangaroos. He quickly fell in love with the sport, and that passion is still strong today.
 
"I grew up with it," Brooks said. "I became addicted to the sport, playing in the AFL is all I ever wanted to do."
 
Growing up, Brooks played football in high school and tried to get drafted to the AFL after graduation. Sadly, he missed out on getting drafted and ended up taking some time away from the sport he had played since age four.
 
Brooks then started working as a landscaper in Wagga Wagga, becoming certified in the trade. Football was always on the back of his mind though, as he always found time to play with friends for fun.
 
As the years went on, Brooks thought his competitive football days were over. He was in his mid-twenties, had a successful landscaping career and had not played in a competitive atmosphere in years, but to his surprise, there was still a chance for him.
 
"I found out there was a way for me to play in America, a different sport in some ways, but for me, it was still just punting," Brooks laughed. "I just decided to give it a go and see how it works."
 
Brooks then got involved with a program called Pro Kick Australia, which helps punters get athletic scholarships to college, mainly in America. At age 25, many years removed from competitive football, Brooks started training with them.
 
Getting back into the sport brought light into the Australian's life and gave him a new goal to strive for.
 
"It was a new challenge for me, and it was something I was very happy to take on," Brooks said. "It gave me a new form of life; I was striving for a new goal, and it was something I really enjoyed."
 
The hard work paid off after a year of training, and once he started going to camps with Pro Kick Australia, Brooks started getting collegiate attention.
 
Brooks was originally going to play at the University of Houston, but their kicker had an extra year of eligibility, and Brooks did not want to wait any longer – enter South Alabama.
 
"I then got an offer from South, and since I wanted to play immediately and I was not getting any younger, I decided to move across the other side of the world to play a little football," Brooks said.
 
Brooks then picked up his life and at age 26, moved to Mobile, Ala., to start a new life in a new place. A place that once felt unfamiliar and scary, quickly became his "home away from home" and the Jaguar football program became his new family.
 
When Brooks arrived in Mobile in 2019, he experienced major culture shock.


"Everybody seems to talk different down here," Brooks said. "There's a difference in language, especially with slang and certain phrases. That took some time getting used to. The food is also so different, so that was interesting."
 
Not only was Brooks adjusting to a different culture, but he was also adjusting to a different style of the sport. Australian football and American football have similarities, but also differences. Thankfully for Brooks, the way he kicks will never change.
 
While battling the cultural and athletic differences, Brooks is also adjusting to life 9,000 miles away from his family. It's the life he chose and has loved his time in America, but that does not make it any easier.
 
"It gets tough at times, especially missing things like birthdays, but I also remember how lucky I am to have this opportunity," Brooks said.
 
The opportunity that Brooks stumbled upon is not uncommon for Australian punters but is uncommon for someone who is 25. 
 
Brooks's late start to collegiate athletics makes him the oldest player on the team – at 29 – and one of the oldest in the NCAA. His age makes him a decade older than some players on the team, and just six years younger than head coach Kane Wommack, but that doesn't stop him from forming bonds with everyone in the program.
 
"It feels a bit weird at times being near the same age as the coaches, but I don't mind," Brooks said. "With the coaches, I feel like they know I can handle a bit more criticism than others since I have more years in the sport."
 
His age doesn't affect his bonds with his teammates either, especially with the guys on special teams, if anything it makes them stronger. Brooks sees himself as a mentor to them and uses his life experiences to help the younger players in his position group.
 
"I like the older role in special teams," Brooks laughed. "I feel as though the boys can come to me about stuff and I can talk to them about different experiences in the sport. I think it helps the boys to have someone to talk to."
 
Brooks uses his age and experiences with the AFL to help mentor the special teams' players, especially when it comes to the mental game of kicking and punting. His experience of not getting drafted and walking away from the sport he loves to pursue a five-year-long career in something else gives Brooks a unique perspective when it comes to helping his teammates out with adversity. 
 
"A lot of special teams is more mental than anything and the boys come to me about that," Brooks said. "I like to mentor them through that experience. I just help them calm down because it can get a bit anxious at times. I just try to tell them to have fun and enjoy it, because you don't know how much longer you'll be doing it."
 
While Brooks is often called the "dad" of the team, that doesn't make the experiences with his teammates any less special. Brooks has so many fond memories with his Jaguar teammates, but one that will forever stick out is when the team walked into the finished Hancock Whitney Stadium for the first time.
 
The team previously played all their games at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and as construction wrapped up on Hancock Whitney Stadium, excitement in the program was at an all-time high.
 
"We watched it unfold and watched while it was being built, and there was so much hype around it, that when we finally got to walk through it, it was such a cool moment," Brooks said. "Walking through the tunnel and finally seeing it all, that's my favorite moment."
 
While the good moments at South Alabama outweigh the bad, his time in the Port City started out less than ideal. Brooks loved being a punter, but he struggled early with the student part of being a student-athlete.
 
Being 26 and entering a classroom again was not a walk in the park, and Brooks had to find a healthy balance between being a student and being an athlete.
 
"I was 26 years old and going back to school, that was just overwhelming for a while," Brooks said. "I would get really nervous before every class because I knew I had to pass to play, but at times I was more worried about football. But now, I don't even think about it, it's natural."
 
Once Brooks found the perfect student-athlete balance, he thrived on the field. He was a first-team all-Sun Belt Conference selection by Pro Football Focus his freshman year, averaging 42.3 yards per punt and 14 punts of 50-plus yards.
 
As a sophomore, Brooks finished second in the league and among the top 60 in the country in average yards per punt with 41.7 yards per punt. Brooks also totaled seven 50-plus punts that season.
 
Last season, he averaged a career-high 43.2 yards per punt, earning him an honorable mention all-Sun Belt Conference recognition. For the second time in his career, he recorded 14 punts of 50 or more yards during the season. He was also named first-team all-conference by PFF while receiving fourth-team all-league accolades from Phil Steele Publications.
 
So far this season, Brooks is averaging 41.1 yards per punt, with a season-long of 58 yards in the season opener against Nicholls. He has had at least one punt of 50-plus yards in eight of his 11 games this fall. He has 43 punts of 50 or more yards in his career as well. Brooks has also etched his name among the program's punting leaders at South as he holds the career mark for punting yards (8,939) and ranks second in punts (212) and punts inside the 20 (61).
 
While Brooks loves Jaguar football, he has other passions outside of the game, a big one is raising awareness for men's mental health.
 
During November, Brooks is raising money through an organization called "Movember", where people all around the world grow a mustache and fundraise money for men's mental health and suicide prevention.
 
Brooks has unfortunately lost a few friends back home to suicide, so he feels passionate about the cause and wants to help in any way he can.
 
"It's a big thing for me, just do anything I can to raise awareness and a little bit of money for research," Brooks said.
 
Brooks said the mustache is starting to get a bit annoying but laughed it off and said it's worth it for the cause and the meaning behind it. 
 
Brooks has another year of eligibility after this one, and since he's not quite done being a Jaguar, he plans to return and rep red, white and blue one more time, before hanging up the cleats for good.
 
Brooks is unsure what his future holds after South, but he is looking forward to moving back to the land down under and reuniting with his family.
 
Brooks would like to be a sports agent in the future, with his dream job being working with Formula One. He plans to use his South Alabama degree in sport management and looks to get an additional degree from a sports law school in Melbourne, to try and achieve this goal.
 
When his time playing college football is over, he won't step away from the game just yet, as football will forever be in his life.
 
Brooks looks forward to playing football casually and enjoying a cold beverage afterwards with his "mates" from Australia.
 
"It will mainly be for fun on the weekends," Brooks laughed. "It will be nice to play it casually and relax afterwards."
 
As Brooks reflects on his four (and maybe five) years at South Alabama, he can't put into words what the program means to him. South Alabama and Jaguar football gave him a place to continue playing the sport he loves, gave him a family away from his one back home and gave him structure, which the 26-year-old back in 2018 craved.
 
"I needed structure and I like having stuff that is planned out," Brooks said. "I feel that is the best way for me to get through things. I feel as though the football program has developed me and matured me into the person I am now. The football side of things, having the discipline and structure, helped me with the school side of things."
 
Even though in a year's time, Brooks will pack up his things and move back to Wagga Wagga, he won't be leaving South behind forever. He plans to come back and watch his Jaguar brothers play in Hancock Whitney for years to come, screaming "Js up" and the fight song with his ever-so-present Australian accent.
 
Brooks said he will never forget his time in Mobile and South Alabama, as it shaped him into who he is today and gave him a chance to live out his dream, one that had been brewing since the days in Wagga Wagga, when four-year-old Brooks first picked up a football.
 
He is hopeful him and his "mates" can make one more special memory at Hancock Whitney Stadium this season as they try to tie a school record and pick up their 10^th victory and clinch at least a share of the Sun Belt Conference West Division title with a victory over Old Dominion Saturday. Kickoff versus the Monarchs is set for 11 a.m.