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The Hokies have picked up a sneaky good special teams prospect in Australian-born punter Oscar Bradburn.
Oscar Bradburn is a punter out of Sydney Secondary College in Australia. As an early-enrollee, Bradburn was unranked when he first joined the Hokies.
However, 247Sports has recently given Bradburn a 3-star ranking. Even more impressive is the fact that he is considered the third best punter in the entire 2017 class.
Bradburn was primarily recruited by special teams coach James Shibest, whom Justin Fuente brought with him from Memphis.
Shibest was also responsible for the recruitment of JUCO transfer Henri Murphy last year, who began to emerge as an explosive kick returner towards the end of the season.
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To put it delicately, Virginia Tech struggled with punting this past season. Mitchell Ludwig averaged just over 38 yards per punt, according to cfbstats.com.
With Ludwig announcing he will leave the football program, Bradburn is expected to compete heavily for the starting job this year. The only other punter currently on the roster 6-1, 161 Brian Johnson.
At 6-1, 191, Bradburn appears much stronger, and as he shows in this video, he has quite the leg.
His punts also have plenty of hang time (which is important to give the coverage team time to get to the returner) while still traveling an impressive distance.
Overall, Bradburn looks to have a lot of upside, and considering the Hokies were the only team that seemed to recognize him out of Australia, he could prove to be a steal for Fuente and Shibest.
Look for Bradburn to have an immediate impact in 2017. You can stay up to date with all of the latest signings here on our recruiting tracker.
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