How Mediapolis punter Drew Miller breaks the norm of kicker recruiting with Iowa State offer

Mediapolis, Iowa – nestled in the Southeast corner of the state, closer to Illinois than the capital city – boasts a population of a little over 2,000 residents.

One of those people counted in Mediapolis’ population is 16-year-old Drew Miller.

His teammates gave him a nickname this season: Five-star. And at a sunny Tuesday practice early in his junior season, his Bulldogs teammates aren’t shy about calling him that.

Mediapolis’ practice started with special teams drills, and Miller is in a unique position.

“Where do you wanna punt from?” head coach Brian Borrison asked.

While the head coach typically dictates how things operate in practice, Borrison has given Miller the option. He drops the football on the 10-yard line and backs into the end zone.

From inside the end zone and into the wind, Miller’s first punt lands at about the 35-yard line. The next two punts go further, and his fourth kick, a perfect spiral, goes past the 50-yard line. Then Borrison asks Miller a different question.

“Which way do you want to punt?”

It’s a no-brainer for the junior kicker, and he chooses to kick with the wind rather than against it. Miller lines up behind the 20-yard line. He sends his first kick to the opposite 30-yard mark.

“Damn Miller, that’s why you wanted to be with the wind,” one of his Bulldogs teammates yells.

His next punt hits the 15 and bounces into the end zone. Another punt lands just outside the end zone. It’s like clockwork.

Miller has tremendous power when he both kicks and punts the ball in practice.

At national camps, that power coupled with his consistency has made the Mediapolis teenager a 5-star kicking recruit and the No. 1 punter nationwide in the 2024 class. It’s also earned him a scholarship offer from Iowa State, and the Des Moines Register lists Miller as the No. 10 overall recruit in the 2024 class.

From small-town Iowa to the top of the recruiting rankings

Miller has found a way to stand out on the football field, not just in Iowa, but nationwide.

That’s because while Miller’s friends and teammates opted to hone their craft in one of football’s more glamorous positions like quarterback or wide receiver, he opted to become one of the best punters in the country.

But Miller wasn't an overnight sensation, and his journey to becoming a five-star punter started long before he considered playing college football.

“I started playing flag football in preschool, but I didn’t start kicking until my second-grade year,” Miller told the Register. “There was a field goal competition, just for fun, and I was the only one in my grade who could make a field goal.”

Miller credits his soccer background with his success that day. Some would say there’s always been something special about the Mediapolis kicker, even from a young age.

“I’m going back to first, second, third grade when he was a little guy,” Borrison said. “He could kick and kick and kick. He was good, holy cow. I mean, he was the best kicker that we had in our school when he was in sixth grade.”

When he made that field goal during a youth camp hosted by Mediapolis High School players, Miller thought it was cool. Maybe it was that he had performed better than his peers or maybe it was the attention that came with success in a relatively solo position. Whatever it was, that was the spark Miller needed.

“I thought, maybe I should practice this,” Miller said. “I just kind of fell in love with it.”

Practice turned into serious training. Miller attended his first kicking camp in sixth grade. The goal wasn’t even to get his name out there at that point; he was just hungry to become a better kicker.

Then, freshman year, he competed at another camp and finished No. 1 in the country. What came next was like a full-time job for the teenager.

“As soon as football season is over, I was in camps,” Miller said. “December and throughout the spring were camps. And when I wasn’t going to camps on the weekends, I was just in the weight room and out practicing.”

A lot of Miller’s work goes on behind the scenes, much like how a punter’s contributions to a game can often go unnoticed unless they're significant – like Iowa punter Tory Taylor’s 479-yard performance against South Dakota State last weekend.

Hours of work can amount to just a few plays a game, and even then, kickers are only on the field for a matter of seconds at a time. Still, Miller’s efforts to become the best haven’t gone unnoticed.

“I remember looking out a window and it’s 35 degrees, and he’s shoveling off an area of the field last January so he could work on drops,” Borrison said. “His motivation and his drive to be the best that he can be in the punting and kicking department helps.”

Miller’s hard work isn’t something Borrison takes for granted. What does he call having a kicker like Miller on his roster?

A luxury.

Mediapolis is out to a 2-0 start this season, in part thanks to Miller’s contributions as the team’s kicker and punter. He recorded 12 touchbacks on 13 kickoffs for 838 yards. Miller is nine-for-nine on point after attempts and averaged 42.3 yards per punt through two games.

“It’s rare that, with any team, your punter would be one of your top prospects,” Borrison said. “For us, it’s a huge advantage. Being able to kick touchbacks at our level repeatedly is a great thing, helps our coverage units out. From the punt perspective, being able to flip the field, place the ball where you want it, it’s a big impact.”

What’s behind a five-star kicking recruit?

Jamie Kohl has seen his fair share of talented kickers.

The former Iowa State starter is the director of Kohl’s Professional Camps, one of the most creditable kicking sources for the NFL and college coaches, according to the organization’s website. He and his staff produce high school rankings for kickers and punters through camps each season, which college coaches use to identify the elite kicking recruits nationwide.

Kohl knows Miller is the real deal.

“A guy like Drew is so much better than most punters his age,” Kohl told the Register. “He might be able to break through and get any type of offer he wants because he’s that much better than his competition. He’s our best player his age, and quite frankly, there’s a little bit of a distance between him and the rest of the field.”

After Kohl’s 2022 National Invitational Scholarship Camp in July, Miller secured the No. 1 ranking among punters in his class. He’s No. 11 overall among kickers. His punt score at the camp was 111.92, he scored 25 points on field goal charts and won the field goal competition. Multiple punts had over 4.7 seconds of hang time, and other things like leg speed and kicking power factored into his top ranking.

But what the heck does all of that mean?

There are a lot of measurables when it comes to ranking kickers. Without giving specifics of the metrics his staff use, Kohl said that they look at hang time (the amount of time the ball spends in the air after the kick), distance, consistency and handling time.

All those components factor into how a player kicks the ball. Miller has the ability in high school to kick punts in a perfect spiral, like it came out of a quarterback’s hand. Kohl says that has a lot to do with timing, rhythm and tempo, as well as trying to get the ball off the foot cleanly. It’s not an easy skill.

“There (are) a lot of high school players who can hit good punts when they’re practicing without a live snap,” Kohl said. “But there are very few that can catch a live snap and get it off in a quick manner. Our standard (for high school punters) is about 1.4 seconds from catch to kick.

“I just can’t overemphasize how a lot of high school punters are not ready to play early in college. It takes time and thousands and thousands of reps. I do think Drew has gotten those reps at an earlier age – along with good hands and strong hips – and that’s why he’s just ahead of other kids his age.”

Miller’s ranking has also been helped by how many of Kohl’s camps he’s attended. For players to be ranked, they have to participate in Kohl’s ranking camp, and that costs players to attend.

The next ranking camp – in Texas this October – costs $315 per athlete. Kohl’s camp packages range from $820-4,000, but the majority of the offerings are between $300-400, according to Kohl. They also offer a scholarship program for athletes who need financial assistance.

Yes, it could also take a significant financial commitment to become one of the top kickers in the nation. So, how do the athletes that can’t afford to spend that much on camp get their name out there?

“These camps are expensive,” former Iowa kicker Keith Duncan told the Register. “Do they have value? Absolutely. Are they the end all be all for you getting a scholarship? No.”

Duncan hosts his own workouts through Keith Duncan Kicking, which he started after graduating from Iowa in 2021. While he respects Kohl and the work he and his staff put in, Duncan understands that those camps aren’t accessible to all athletes.

He wants those athletes who can’t attend the national camps to focus on their form and getting in front of college coaches at individual program camps. Duncan says the best place to start is to create a highlight reel, and that any athlete – not just kickers and punters – should be their own biggest advocate.

“'How are you unique? How can you provide value to the team,' that’s what I’m telling the kickers and punters that I’m training,” Duncan said. “You want to be in a position where the coach looks at you and sees you bring so much value to the team.”

Punting is winning, but still not priority

Miller holds one offer from Iowa State, which he received before his junior year started. But here’s the thing: That’s a bit of an outlier in terms of kicking and punting recruiting.

Sure, some kickers will pick up an offer before or during their junior year of high school. But some won’t get an offer until during or after their senior year, and most won’t pick up an offer at all.

Just ask Duncan.

“I didn’t get recruited until after my senior year of playing,” Duncan told the Register. “It’s hard for kickers and punters in high school to make a decision because they just don’t know. I still have $100,000 out in student loans but [it's] definitely a decision I wouldn’t have changed.”

Duncan acknowledges that joining any football program, at any position, as a walk-on comes with its share of hurdles. But that’s once a player is already on the team. There are even more challenges when players are getting recruited.

According to Kohl and Duncan, most schools allot 3-4 scholarships for special teams over a four-year period. So, someone like Max Bartachek – a 4.5-star kicker out of Waukee in the 2023 class – could be incredibly talented, but schools just aren’t looking for kickers in his class.

“There’s 130-ish Division I (FBS) schools, depending on the years,” Kohl said. “If there are three scholarships allotted, they’re hoping that kicker lasts until senior year, so really we’re talking 40-ish scholarships a year.

“And with the transfer portal, it’s harder for high school athletes initially to get scholarships, especially high school punters. It’s pretty rare.”

Even when college programs are looking for a punter, high school athletes have tough competition to beat out for possible scholarship offers. Iowa’s Taylor is part of a growing trend in college football – Australian punters.

Last season, 53 Australians held punting roster positions with 50 of the 130 Division I FBS programs, according to Fox Sports.

Looking at this year, four teams in the Big 12 and six programs in the Big Ten have at least one Australian kicker or punter on the roster. Indiana has a punter from New Zealand, as well.

This new wave of punters from Down Under leaves few spots for high school kickers and punters on college rosters. Because there is no age limit in the NCAA, Australian players could opt to play in the Australian Football League or other club programs before pursuing a college opportunity in the United States.

Taylor turned 25 ahead of the 2022 season, which will be his junior year at Iowa.

“Scholarships are very frequently given to Australians now,” Kohl said. “It’s tough for the high school kids, 17-year-olds are competing against 21- or 22-year-olds.”

Duncan understands why Australian punters are becoming the trend in the college ranks. Australian football rules require players to kick the ball out of their hands, often on the run. Or, as Duncan put it: “In Australia, they grow up kicking a football. Well, in America, we grew up throwing a football.”

Miller can play two full years of high school football knowing that he has a scholarship offer from Iowa State. He plans to continue working in hopes of picking up a few more offers, but he can find comfort in already having a guaranteed roster spot with a Division I program.

Most of the other high school kickers in Iowa won’t be as fortunate. But Duncan hopes that the lack of scholarship offers and roster spots for kickers and punters doesn’t dissuade those kids from pursuing those positions.

“Kicking and punting, it’s definitely not an easy thing,” Duncan said. “But it is really cool to see these kids grow not only on the field but off the field as well.

“I think they see great value in learning the game of kicking, but also seeing how it can play a part in confidence growth or doing things that you may not want to. Just life lessons as well.”

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: How Mediapolis football's Drew Miller became a top punting prospect