MIAMI – It’s no secret that Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti values experience when building a roster. While his 27-year old punter and holder fits this profile more than anyone else, Hoosier fans have not had many opportunities to familiarize themselves with him on account of Indiana’s offense ranking second nationally in points per game.
Melbourne, Australia native Mitch McCarthy’s path to college football was unusual. He grew up with dreams of playing Aussie Rules Football, but injury issues soured his chances of having a successful career in the Australian Football League. He broke his foot while playing at the under-18 level and ended up in a developmental league, spending a year and a half there before getting cut on his 19th birthday due to lingering foot problems.
Sent down another level, McCarthy played two more seasons and had a chance of getting re-drafted into the AFL. Because of his age, he was usurped by younger talent, and knee surgery during the Covid-19 pandemic forced him out of AFL consideration.
In 2021, then-Iowa punter and fellow Aussie Tory Taylor told him about Prokick Australia, explaining that it gave athletes from Down Under an opportunity to play college football in the United States. McCarthy entered Prokick with an edge over other Prokick athletes because he spent a brief period of high school playing basketball at Village Christian High School in Los Angeles.
He ultimately landed in Orlando, Florida, playing three seasons for head coach Gus Malzahn at UCF. McCarthy averaged 43 yards per punt in 37 games with the Knights, landing 44 punts inside the 20-yard line and having just one returned for a touchdown.
Malzahn was fired following a dismal 4-8 season in 2024, and the stars aligned for McCarthy in Bloomington with the graduation of New Zealander James Evans, who holds the Indiana program record with a career average of 43.7 yards per punt. Cignetti called upon McCarthy to fill Evans’ role in the final season of his college career.
There has been much discussion about players like wide receiver E.J. Williams Jr., who began playing college football in 2020. So, too, did safety Louis Moore, and both players are approaching 25 years of age. Typically, players like Williams Jr. and Moore have stuck around so long on account of lengthy injury histories or other extenuating circumstances.
McCarthy is different. He played his freshman season in 2022, when he was in his mid-twenties, on account of not following the traditional path that most college athletes do. He pivoted to American football after exhausting all avenues in Aussie Rules Football, which took him into his early twenties.
Now the same age as NFL stars like Saquon Barkley and A.J. Brown, McCarthy is by far the oldest player in Indiana’s locker room. Some players may view themselves as out of place when they are as much as 10 years older than their teammates, but not McCarthy.
“It keeps you young,” McCarthy said. “I could be somewhere working a nine-to-five, and that makes you boring, but these kids keep you young, saying silly things. I have a really good time hanging around these boys, especially the specialists. They’re really good kids.”
For all the joking around that college-aged athletes are wont to do, McCarthy’s advanced age and the lessons he’s learned on the way give him wisdom that he can share with his fellow kickers and punters.
Included in this group is kicker Nico Radicic, whom McCarthy describes as a “robot.” As Indiana’s No. 1 holder, McCarthy has been part of the operation on the vast majority of Radicic’s 17 field goal attempts and program-record 84 extra points — save for a brief absence in September due to injury — a role he says he loves.
“I know the little landmines that can be set out in a sport like this,” McCarthy said. “I’ve made my mistakes at a younger age, and I know where to walk now — what to avoid, and what to move towards.”
By virtue of playing for the Big Ten’s best offensive team, McCarthy averages just 2.1 punts per game. Despite his limited usage, he is always wary of the varying skillsets presented by different punt returners, steadfast in his mental preparation and hunting any weaknesses he can exploit.
“I always picture having five or six punts,” McCarthy said. “If I don’t punt, it is what it is, but every time there’s a third down, I’m on the sideline going through my thoughts and mental cues, trying to assess where I’m going to put the ball.”
This year’s College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will be remembered not for special teams play, but for No. 1 Indiana’s thorough dominance of No. 5 Oregon in a 56-22 win. There was, however, one special teams play that helped the Hoosiers pull away from the Ducks and put the game firmly in their hands.
In the middle of the second quarter with Indiana leading 14-7, an odd sack-fumble was recovered by quarterback Fernando Mendoza, albeit for a loss of 20 yards, which backed the Hoosiers out of plus territory. McCarthy jogged on for his first punt of the evening and blasted a 49-yard punt that was fielded at the eight-yard line by Oregon’s Gary Bryant Jr., who returned it just five yards before being tracked down by a hustling Charlie Becker.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore fumbled and Indiana recovered the football at the Ducks’ three-yard line. Three plays later, the Hoosiers took a 21-7 lead on what became the first of three straight scoring drives to close the first half. Oregon never got within two scores of Indiana for the rest of the game, and it was all set up by McCarthy’s right leg.
Now, McCarthy is getting ready to conclude his college career in the same state where it began four years ago. It was in Bloomington this winter that he experienced snow for the first time and, while he appreciated the novelty of throwing snowballs, McCarthy is thankful for the opportunity to return to the state that gave him his first taste of college football.
“I forgot how beautiful the weather is,” he said. “I took that for granted, for sure. Being in Indiana in the middle of January when you’re knee-deep in snow and it’s freezing cold, I do miss the beautiful weather of Florida.”
McCarthy and his fiancé, Taylor, take road trips on occasion, and he said he plans on exploring more of what The Hoosier State has to offer after football season ends. Before any traveling — perhaps to Brown County or Turkey Run State Park — can take place, Indiana has one more game to play: The CFP National Championship against the Miami Hurricanes, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Monday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
The game will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks and WIUX Sports. The latter is the Indiana student radio broadcast, and it will feature Ben Haller, Luke Brennaman and Nick Rodecap on the call.
