Freshman punter Wade Lees' job for the Maryland football team is fairly simple -- flip field position as best he can, pin the opposition deep in its own territory whenever possible and try to keep the ball out of the hands of dangerous punt returners. Lees, though, is a former Australian-rules football player, so there's more that he's familiar with in competition.
"I asked if I could do a few tackling drills at training, but they whisked me out of the way," Lees said during Maryland's media availability Nov. 2. "[They] just said, 'Just go back over there and punt,' which is fine. I understand. Obviously, I can't really afford to get injured. It wasn't too bad. I tried to get downfield and tag off on [receiver] Jacquille Veii [Nov. 1], but he side-stepped me, so that was pretty embarrassing. I just went back to my side. He's pretty quick. I do enjoy it though."
Lees, at 28 years old, holds the nickname "Godfather" with his teammates -- "it just gets thrown around here and there," Lees said -- and took an adventurous route to College Park. The 6-foot-2, 204-pound Melbourne, Australia, native was a midfielder in the Australian Football League.
