Auburn Continues Six-Year Trend with Latest Signing

The more that things change for the Auburn Tigers, the more they stay the same

Auburn football head coach Alex Golesh's latest signing keeps a trend going on the Plains | Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Death, taxes and an Australian punter on the Auburn Tigers. That seems to have been the trend in recent years, even spanning across multiple Tiger coaches, and Alex Golesh has decided he’d not like to be an exception to that rule. 

On Tuesday, his program announced they’d signed Max Bourke, an punter out of Melbourne, Australia.

From Down Under to The Plains 🇦🇺🦅

Welcome Home, Max Bourke!
🏠Melbourne, Australia
🏈Punter
🔗https://t.co/dQNnYGwy3S pic.twitter.com/Pzbf60xVfA

— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) February 3, 2026

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Since Bourke is coming from overseas, he doesn’t have a star classification or a national ranking, but he’s played Aussie Rules football, much like Auburn punters of the past.

He’ll join a room headlined by fellow Aussie Hudson Kaak as well as 2025 signee John Alan McGuire, an Alabama native who served as a backup punter and kickoff specialist for Hugh Freeze’s 2025 roster.

If Bourke takes over for Kaak at any point in the season or even in future seasons, it’ll continue the trend of Aussie punters headlining the Tigers’ special teams unit, a trope that began when now-retired head coach Gus Malzahn signed Oscar Chapman in 2020.

Chapman punted for the Tigers for four years, consistently ranking in the top five in college football for punting stats, including longest punts and average punt distance. When Chapman’s time with the Tigers was up, he’d managed to place himself within the top four of Auburn punting leaders, including a 71-yard boot, which was the third-longest in Auburn history.

From Chapman, the Tigers moved to Hudson Kaak in 2025, courtesy of Hugh Freeze’s recruiting, though he struggled a bit in important moments. Kaak’s average in 2025 was just 42 yards per punt, eighth in the SEC.

Kaak is expected to be the Tigers’ starter in 2026, though punting isn’t a position that traditionally benefits from seniority. If McGuire or Bourke show they have what it takes in practice, they could very well find themselves taking the reins of the Tigers’ punting unit in 2026.