Alex Mastromanno's Florida State career began as a surprise signing and a first-time United States visit to enroll with the Seminoles.

Now, he's hoping it ends with a historic honor for the FSU football program.

FSU's redshirt senior punter has put a bow on his remarkable career in Tallahassee. He was one of three finalists for the Ray Guy award, which was claimed by USC's Eddie Czaplicki. (Mastromanno was a two-time finalist, but no FSU punter has won the award.)

Late Thursday night, Mastromanno was selected as a first-team Walter Camp All-American.

Mastromanno led all punters in the country this season with an average punt distance of 49.3 yards, 1.3 yards more per punt than any other eligible punter and 0.8 yards more than either of the other two Ray Guy finalists.

The Melbourne, Australia, native has rewritten FSU's punting record books. He leaves after five seasons with the most punts (251) and total punting yards (11,265) in program history, taking those records from Rohn Stark, who set them in the late 70s and early 80s.

He also leaves as FSU's career leader in average punt distance (44.9) and with the best single-season average in program history (49.3 yards this season), taking both of those records from Shaun Powell.

Additionally, Mastromanno now has the best single-season punting average in ACC history, surpassing the record of 48.0 yards set in 2020 by Georgia Tech's Pressley Harvin III.

Not bad for a guy who very well could have slipped through the cracks of a coaching change and never ended up in Tallahassee.

Mastromanno grew up playing Australian Rules football because American football is not really a thing in Australia. What has become more of a thing in Australia, however, is punting.

Prokick Australia, established in 2007, has quickly become a major pipeline to providing college football teams -- and now NFL teams -- with Australian kickers. Mastromanno got involved with Prokick in 2018 when he realized he wasn't going to go professional in Australian Rules but that he could be good enough to become a punter.

Blake Hayes, a childhood friend who punted at Illinois from 2017-21, introduced him to Prokick head coach Nathan Chapman.

"Quite a few boys that I knew around Melbourne had had pretty good success coming over here and going to college, to the NFL," Mastromanno told the Osceola. "I always had a pretty good kick growing up so I thought I could be decent at this."

Through the Prokick network, Mastromanno got connected with FSU in 2019 when Willie Taggart was running the program. He was even planning a visit to Tallahassee late in that season and expecting to sign with the Seminoles before Taggart was dismissed on Nov. 3 of that year and the vast majority of his staff was not retained after the season.

Mastromanno says that left his recruitment and his status with FSU in limbo. Luckily for him, the Seminoles were still in need of a punter that offseason with no returning scholarship option. It didn't take much convincing of new FSU head coach Mike Norvell to see that Mastromanno was a great option to be the Seminoles' next punter.

"He was able to see my film and after chatting with him, he offered me right away," Mastromanno said. "I always wanted to come to FSU, but for a while there, I thought it might be tough just because the coaches that were originally recruiting me left the program. Fortunately, coach Norvell liked what he saw."

Because of the time difference in Australia, Mastromanno actually became the first FSU player to officially sign to play for Norvell, coming as a total surprise when his decision was announced during the 2019 early signing period.

After Mastromanno signed with FSU in mid-December, he had to enroll about two weeks later in early January.

"(It) was a pretty crazy turnaround," Mastromanno said. "But I also really enjoyed the quick transition of just getting in school and getting straight over there as well."

Prokick had a few theory classes that prepared its students in terms of the general rules of football, when they could be asked to punt and when teams may not elect to, like on fourth-and-short. But far more of the organization's work came on the field in the form of punting practice.

As such, he arrived at FSU in January 2020 with a basic knowledge of football and a more comprehensive knowledge of what would be required of him as a punter.

"I feel like it doesn't take that long to pick up on it once you get over here," Mastromanno said. "But, yeah, it is a pretty fresh sport for us when we get here and it's something that we've got to pick up and adapt to."

By a few games watching from the sideline, Mastromanno says he had the gist of the game as a whole.

However, he admits that, "I'm still learning random rules today, which is pretty funny, just because there's so many of them compared to most sports."

Mastromanno's first-ever trip to the United States was expected to be an extended one. However, two months after he arrived in March of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic shut down FSU's campus and he returned to Melbourne with the status of the 2020 season uncertain over the ensuing months.

Once it became clear the 2020 season was happening, Mastromanno made it back to the U.S. just in time for preseason camp. His 43.5-yard punt average his true freshman season was the best by an FSU punter since 2015.

As the Seminoles improved over Norvell's first few seasons, so did Mastromanno in terms of the intricacies of punting.

He had no touchbacks on 61 punts his redshirt freshman season in 2021. Over his last three seasons, 57 of his 155 punts (36.8%) were downed inside the 20 and just eight of them were touchbacks.

Especially over his last two seasons, Mastromanno has really found the power in his leg. After he had 17 50-plus-yard punts over his first three seasons, he had 49 punts of 50-plus yards over the last two seasons, 19 in 2023 and 30 of his 55 punts (54.5%) in 2024.

Asked what his favorite FSU football memory is, Mastromanno cited the many times he got to face off against Miami. The 2021 "4th and 14" game. FSU's blowout road win at Miami in 2022. The 2023 game -- which he says was the best game of his career with seven punts, five of which were downed inside the 20-yard line -- which FSU narrowly eked out a 27-20 win to improve to 10-0 and set the stage for him breaking the rock in the locker room after the win.

For someone who didn't know much about FSU's rivals before becoming a Seminole, he says the Miami rivalry stands out to him as the most meaningful.

"Obviously, the Florida (rivalry) is not far behind but there's something about those Miami games for me," Mastromanno said.

Over his time at FSU, he's had the opportunity to take a few visits back home to Melbourne. He's also had a few chances to show friends and family members from back home what Tallahassee has been like for him.

His parents have visited him a few times and he hosted a few childhood friends from Australia for his final game as a Seminole when FSU hosted Florida on Nov. 30.

While Mastromanno's final season didn't go as planned in terms of team success, what he accomplished after electing to return for his fifth season was undeniable. The same can be said for FSU kicker Ryan Fitzgerald, who also elected to return in 2024.

This duo started playing alongside each other in 2020 and have evolved into probably the two best players on the Seminoles' 2024 roster.

Fitzgerald, after some struggles early in his career, was 13 for 13 on field goals this past season and made 40 of his final 45 field goals over his last 2.5 seasons as a Seminole. He was also one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award Thursday night.

"Obviously the win-loss ratio wasn't how we wanted it to be for our final year. So it is a bit bittersweet. I felt like we were both able to execute our jobs for the most part so it's nice to finish my career knowing I did my job despite not having the wins we would have wanted. That's just football sometimes," Mastromanno said. "Ryan's been great. I think we've started this journey together and I feel like we've both really progressed and grown during it all. To see him have such great success on and off the field has been awesome. I think we really feed off each other in that competitive way, just help push each other and I think that's helped us both with our success on the field this year. I'm just so excited for his career and what's next for him on this journey."

Added FSU special teams coordinator John Papuchis the final week of the season, "I think they are two of the best in the country. I hope they are able to get the national recognition they deserve because they are the best place-kicker and the best punter in the country.

"Sometimes that doesn't always happen for teams that aren't having the most success, but I do think both of them have put themselves in a position where their legacy here at Florida State is going to be tremendous and they are going to have an opportunity to play at the next level."

There's a ceiling in terms of draft stock for punters. Last year's Ray Guy winner, fellow Aussie Tory Taylor, was taken in the fourth round of this year's NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears.

It's entirely possible that Mastromanno is the first punter off the board and even may be one of the first few FSU players taken in next April's NFL Draft.

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