How the NCAA’s best punter followed a path from Providence High to the NFL Draft
When he was a freshman in high school — years before he would be named the nation’s best college punter — Eddie Czaplicki was planning to play football and soccer at Providence High School in south Charlotte.
But an ankle injury changed that.
“I thought about playing football and soccer,” said Czaplicki (pronounced Sha-PLEET-ski), who hopes to be selected out of Southern Cal in this year’s NFL Draft. “And I didn’t see myself playing college soccer. I was usually a bigger kid in soccer. I wasn’t the fastest, but I had the biggest leg. I transitioned into football pretty easily.”
He sure did.
Overcoming the odds
Czaplicki became a top 10 national recruit as a high school senior, when he signed with Arizona State and former Super Bowl-winning player and former NFL head coach Herm Edwards. After Edwards was fired three games into the 2022 season, Czaplicki transferred to Southern Cal for his final two seasons.
As a senior in Los Angeles, Czaplicki averaged 47.8 yards on 43 punts, and on 25 of his attempts, he pinned opponents inside their 20-yard line. After the season, he became the first Trojan to win the Ray Guy award as the nation’s best punter. Czaplicki was also named first team All-Big Ten and first team on three All-America teams. He was second team All-American on seven more.
“To be the first player from USC to win (the Guy award) meant a lot,” Czaplicki said. “It’s a culmination of many years of work and it felt amazing to win that. Some of the guys who have won that are all-time greats.”
Last year’s Ray Guy winner, Iowa’s Tory Taylor, was selected in the fourth round of the NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. But punters aren’t always top priorities.
In two of the past four drafts, only one punter was selected, and no punter has gone higher than the fourth round since the Jaguars took Bryan Anger in the third round in 2012.
Czaplicki — who said he’s worked out for three NFL teams in recent weeks — knows that history well.
“I’m open for every opportunity,” he said. “As a punter, it is difficult. Some years, no punters get drafted, and sometimes, it’s one in the fifth round and two in the seventh. The main thing is making the most of every opportunity. Football has given me so much in life and I really love the game, and I want to make the most of it. I couldn’t imagine when I started playing that I would be in this position.”
Showing promise at Providence High
His high school coach at Providence, Wes Ward, isn’t too surprised. Ward said he saw pretty quickly when Czaplicki started focusing on football that he had a future.
As a junior in high school in the fall of 2019, Czaplicki nailed a 51-yard field goal that was second-longest in the nation that season and is top five in Mecklenburg County history.
And Czaplicki always did extra work. After he left Ward, he trained with Dan Orner, a former kicker at North Carolina and for the Minnesota Vikings. Orner has helped develop a plethora of elite punters and kickers, including former Panthers kicker Joey Slye. Two of Orner’s former clients kicked and punted for Tampa Bay in Super Bowl LV in 2021 — former Northwest Cabarrus punter Bradley Pinion and former Hickory High kicker Ryan Succop.
“There was never any time, when there was down time, when we weren’t practicing or he didn’t have homework, that he wasn’t working on something that would make him better,” Ward said of Czaplicki. “He had a powerful leg when he got to us. He was a big-time soccer player early on, but he was an animal in the weight room.
“His last power clean with us was 275, I think, and as a kicker, that’s crazy, but that’s the type of work ethic he has, and I think that helped his leg get that much stronger.”
Now that work has Czaplicki possibly weeks away from being a real NFL player.
“It’s unreal,” Ward said. “That’ll be my first one that I’ve coached to get to the NFL, and I’m just super proud of him. Winning the Ray Guy award and all the detailed time he’s put in, seeing it all come to fruition is kind of cool.”
Czaplicki said, drafted or not, he just wants a chance to play pro ball. He thinks he’s ready.
“It would be amazing,” he said. “It would be life changing. To see how my family has helped me out and everything they’ve done for me and how much they believe in me, I’d just be grateful to them if I make it; because without them, I’m not where I am right now.
“It would be a dream come true for me.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
