Height: 6’5”
Weight: 230 pounds
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia (Frankston)
Class/Position: Senior/Punter
I’ll introduce number 44 on our countdown (and on IU’s roster for the 2025 season) by playing a bit of a guessing game. This player is from Australia. That likely tells you that he must be a punter. This player is 6’5” and 230 pounds. The size leads you in the direction of a tight end or defensive end. Consider yourself introduced to Mitch McCarthy, IU’s new 6’5” and 230-pound Australian punter.
As is the case with most Australians playing college football, Mitch McCarthy trained with ProKick Australia. He was with the famous program in the fall of 2021 after being selected number seven overall in the 2016 Australian Rules Football Rookie Draft. His main love, though, was basketball. He played hoops and actually spent one year at Village Christian High School in California.
McCarthy knew his future was not in basketball and it was not in Australian Rules Football so he pivoted to punting and committed to the University of Central Florida ahead of the 2022 season. He appeared in 12 games for the Knights as a freshman, 13 as a sophomore and 12 as a junior last season. He punted the ball 115 times for an average of 43 yards per punt. That level of experience was important for Indiana after losing James Evans to graduation. Indiana needed a punter and McCarthy was instantly interested.
“Besides the fact they were having a very good year and that stood out to me, there was a connection through ProKick Australia,” McCarthy told the media in the spring. “James Evans was there and I was a basketballer before I was a footballer, so I definitely knew about the Hoosiers, so it was very exciting.”
The punter is a player that is usually only paid attention to when something has gone wrong. For instance, James Evans had several uneventful games and no one noticed. He had a rough outing against Ohio State and it was talked about for a long while. Mitch McCarthy is a more physically imposing punter than IU fans are used to seeing but the hope is that he is rarely used and never really noticed during his one year in Bloomington. If the need arises though, IU can feel good about having an experienced punter with a big leg booming snaps that come from experienced long snapper Mark Langston.
The Hoosier Huddle Countdown to Kickoff continues each and every day so be sure to check back often for the latest profile piece!