One of the surprises of the 2022 early signing period for Syracuse was the Orange landing a commitment from Australian punter Max von Marburg. We spoke to him about his journey from over 10,000 miles away to Central New York on this week’s The Juice on the Cuse Podcast, presented by SNY.tv.
Von Marburg was not on the radars of major recruiting services, but the Orange offered him a scholarship back in November, and he immediately accepted.
He comes via Pro Kick Australia, an organization that identifies and trains kickers to become college prospects. The program has produced six Ray Guy Award winners, with Kentucky’s Max Duffy being the most recent award winner in 2019.
Von Marburg detailed his recruitment process with the Orange, citing SU’s success with special teams as a huge reason he accepted the offer on the spot. Former Syracuse punter Riley Dixon is currently the New York Giants’ starting punter, and Sterling Hofrichter was the Atlanta Falcon’s punter in 2020.
Though Von Marburg grew up in rural Australia several hours outside of Melbourne, he was exposed to American football at an early age from his mother, who attended Penn State.
But his interest grew exponentially several years ago when he found a YouTube video on Michael Dickson, a Sydney native who is currently the punter for the Seattle Seahawks after winning the 2017 Ray Guy Award with Texas.
The more he read about Dickson, the more he wanted to pursue kicking. Shortly thereafter, he connected with Pro Kick Australia.
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He’ll arrive on campus in summer 2022, and wants Orange fans to know this about him.
“I can’t wait to get over,” von Marburg said. “I’m going to be doing everything my power to make sure we’re one of the premier special teams units in the US.”
Afterward, editor in chief Brad Bierman calls in to break down the remainder of Syracuse’s early signing period class, and looks forward to the work that remains to be done through the transfer portal.
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