Jay walking: Southern-bred Notre Dame punter happy to transfer to LSU

On the final day of last November in a hastily called sunrise service 7 a.m. team meeting, Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly told his squad he was leaving immediately to become LSU’s new head football coach.

Naturally, the Fighting Irish players were shocked. Many were angry.

But punter Jay Bramblett listened to Kelly’s four-minute speech and had no problem understanding his reasoning for moving on after 12 seasons in South Bend.

“Guys that were in that meeting I love every single one of them to death, but I don't think a lot of guys really understand it (college football) is a business,” Bramblett said. “It’s not that you don't care about the guys you're with.

"But if somebody just offered you $100 million, and you got an opportunity (to go) where things might work a little better, it's going to be (a) pretty, pretty easy (decision). His (Kelly) reasoning to us was very clean, very clear.”

Bramblett, who transferred to LSU in mid-January after three seasons as Notre Dame’s starting punter, has no problems with business decisions. He made one when he was the nation’s No. 1 ranked prep punter in the Class of 2019 at Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Hillcrest High, a school located 7.4 miles from Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium.

He has athletic genes. His dad Mike, head football and baseball coach at Brookwood (Ala.) High, is also a former UAB baseball player and an ex-high school punter whose snapper was current Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney. Bramblett's older brother Geoffrey is a minor league pitcher who had an 18-9 career record with 35 college starts for the Crimson Tide from 2014 to 2016.

“Notre Dame offered me a scholarship,” Bramblett said. "Alabama wanted me as a preferred walk-on. It was a no-brainer.”

When Bramblett entered the transfer portal a day after Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl Jan. 1 loss to Oklahoma State – something that had always been in his plans once he earned his bachelor’s degree – two weeks later he became Kelly’s first transfer signee at LSU after Alabama again wanted him only as a preferred walk-on.

“I love Notre Dame and the people there, the relationships I made,” Bramblett said. “A lot of people say it takes a special person to go to Notre Dame and be a Notre Dame man and I don't think that was necessarily me. I just felt like I needed a fresh start, a little reset.

“I’m thankful and blessed Coach Kelly and (special teams) Coach (Brian) Polian gave me this opportunity to play for them again.”

There likely wasn’t much discussion between Kelly and Polian deciding whether to re-acquire the services of Bramblett because they know his consistency as a player and a person, better yet while Bramblett is listed as a senior, he has two remaining seasons thanks to the NCAA’s COVID-19 extra year of eligibility clause.

“I’ve watched @jbram_15 get the job done time and again throughout his college career. . .I know he’s ready to make the most of this opportunity,” Kelly tweeted when he announced Bramblett’s signing on Jan. 20.

Bramblett’s yards per punt average improved in each of his three years at Notre Dame – 39.4 as a freshman, 42.8 as a sophomore and 43.8 last season as a junior. He averaged 41.9 yards in 164 career punts with an average return of 4.5 yards. Just one of his punts was returned longer than 20 yards.

As a former high school quarterback, Bramblett has maintained his athletic ability to make plays. While he never attempted a pass from a fake punt formation with the Fighting Irish, he ran 14 yards vs. Duke in 2020 for a first down.

And besides his career-long, field-flipping career long 72-yard punt vs. Wisconsin last season, his teammates haven’t forgotten his TD-saving tackle as a placekick holder on a missed field goal return by Clemson’s Travis Etienne on the last play of the first half in Notre Dame’s 47-41 two-overtime 2020 road victory vs. the then-No. 1 Tigers.

There are also his four punts for 47.3 yards including a 53-yarder in Notre Dame’s 2020 College Football Playoff 31-14 semi final loss to eventual national champ Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

Though Bramblett is looking forward to his first Tiger Stadium playing experience, he is already in a better daily frame of mind returning to live and play in the U.S. region he was born and raised.

First, there’s the fact from Baton Rouge he’s five hours and 327 miles closer to Tuscaloosa than he was in South Bend.

And for someone who was met with a foot of snow when he stepped on the field for his first Notre Dame practice in March 2019 (“I was like `What have I gotten myself into?’” he recalled), Bramblett loves being back in a warmer year-round climate.

It’s not only conducive for his hunting and fishing passions but for his punting as well.

“It’s warm and the humidity is high,” Bramblett said, “meaning the ball is going to go farther and hang higher.”

He’s even excited he now gets to wear Nike shoes and kick Nike footballs (“The leather on a Nike ball is the closest thing you can get to an NFL ball without actually being in the NFL,” he said) rather than the Adidas gear and balls he used at Notre Dame.

“Believe it or not, kickers are very particular,” Bramblett said with a laugh acknowledging the well-known quirkiness of kicking specialists.

Besides punting, there are plans for Bramblett to serve as placekick holder as he was at Notre Dame and as did LSU’s two immediate past punters Avery Atkins and Zach Von Rosenberg.

Since he’s the only player in the Tigers’ locker room who has played for Kelly, Bramblett has been the answer man for his new teammates adapting to their head coach.

“The guy's won a lot of games and it's not by mistake,” Bramblett said of Kelly. “He's got a process, a mission statement with these traits of excellence that we're supposed to live by.

“It’s about being consistent every day. Doing all the small things right. Being respectful. Being on time. (Maintaining) a clean locker room. He wants us to live a certain way. Be good guys. Be good players. Be a good football team. Have a brotherhood.

“He's all about us being the same person every single day. I've seen the same thing from him. He applies all this stuff. He's right there with the same mindset.”