'A Microsecond...Can Change Everything': Michigan Punter Relives 2015 Nightmare

So much changed in 10 seconds.

When the clock started ticking, Michigan possessed the ball with a 23-21 fourth-quarter lead over archrival Michigan State. The Wolverines hadn't beaten the Spartans in their last two tries, but a successful punt here would have flipped the field and possibly killed the clock as well. As the snap soared toward Wolverines punter Blake O'Neill, he lifted his eyes too soon and lost control.

In the ensuing chaos, O'Neill's instincts took over. He knows now that he should have dived on the ball. If he had, Michigan State would have gotten it back around the Wolverines' 40-yard line, with a long field goal or a Hail Mary as its only options.

But by the time O'Neill recovered the fumble, five Spartan defenders had surrounded him. Michigan State hadn't even sent a man back for the return. In a final desperate act, O'Neill attempted a bicycle kick-style punt, which wound up in the waiting hands of Michigan State's Jalen Watts-Jackson. By the time Michigan brought Watts-Jackson down, he was in the end zone and the clock had expired.

So had Michigan's hopes for a redemptive victory.

If you're a diehard college football fan—especially if you're a Wolverines or Spartans fan—you likely can picture the play frame-by-frame. It shouldn't surprise you to learn that O'Neill can, too. What might surprise you, though, is his how he feels about that play two years later.

Tony Ding/Associated Press

O'Neill was born in Melbourne and grew up playing Australian rules football. The Down Under edition of the game is freer-flowing and, in recent years, has produced plenty of American football punters because of its regular use of drop kicks. O'Neill played the game as a boy and showed enough promise in high school to play for his school's team and a local professional development club.

Around that time, he and his friends also became consumed with American football, mostly through the Madden video game.

After O'Neill supported himself through college with part-time modeling, a friend he played amateur football with told him about Prokick Australia, an Australian company that works to transition Aussie kickers and punters to American football. Following a few months of training with Prokick's director, Nathan Chapman, O'Neill was offered an opportunity to play college football with Weber State.

"I had no idea where Utah was in the States, or its culture or anything like that," O'Neill says. "But I was ready for an adventure."

After a year at Weber, he used the graduate transfer rule to land at Ann Arbor. The transition from the 17,000-seat Stewart Stadium to the Big House was stark.

"I think you can be aware of what college football is like objectively, but it's different when you experience it," he says. "You watch [ESPN College] GameDay, but nothing prepares you for the sheer amount of excitement in the crowd."

Even in the aftermath of the botched punt, when he received social media messages encouraging him to "cut his hands off" or "drink bleach," he didn't become discouraged. He didn't grow up dreaming of or consumed in the culture of American football. Instead, he was armed with his laid-back Australian attitude in the aftermath.

Tony Ding/Associated Press

"If I had kept my eyes down a little longer, I would have been fine," he says now, matter-of-factly. "I don't really see it as a big error. You take the good with the bad. Errors happen in games all the time, and I feel like I had a really good rest of the season after I put it behind me."

Although the callous messages got the most media attention, O'Neill says the overwhelming response was positive. He received more than 1,500 messages on Facebook and Twitter as well as phone calls and letters. He cherished the drawings he received from schoolchildren in the area and even had a chat with longtime NFL kicker Jay Feely.

"I know for some people, that punt will be all they remember about me," he says, "but it's not all I remember from my time in America. I had so many wonderful memories."

O'Neill tore his ACL in a practice before the Citrus Bowl that season, ending his college career a game early. After graduating with his master's in sports management from Michigan, he moved down to Florida and spent some time pursuing a career in real estate. Now he's back home in Melbourne, using all the lessons he learned in the United States.

In addition to building his real estate career and staying up until 3 a.m. local time to watch the Wolverines on Sundays, he coaches at Prokick on Wednesdays and Fridays. Most of the athletes there know his story, and he has no issue using it as an example of how exact a specialist must be on every play.

"I try to impress it on every guy there," he says. "You have to get the ball off in 1.2 or 1.4 seconds. I know how a microsecond with a misplaced hand can change everything."