It’s only been a little over a year into James Rendell’s career at Notre Dame, but there hasn’t been much the punter hasn’t experienced heading into Year Two in the Blue and Gold.
“I really feel like he's seen it all and done it all now in Year One,” special teams coordinator Marty Biagi said. “There's nothing much else you can do between going to the playoffs, playing in the bowl games, playing in the national championship. It's not going to be the moment too big on the very first game like it might have been at the beginning at A&M.”
Whether it was debuting on the road against Texas A&M, playing in the Irish’s first ever home playoff game or delivering punts in the national championship — Rendell’s rookie campaign was chock full of big moments. Not to mention he was living halfway across the world.
“Having all the experience that I had last year, in the playoffs and the national championship game, there's nothing I haven't seen before,” Rendell said. “I think I was only scratching the surface of my full potential last year. And I'm very much looking forward to what I can do this year for the team.
“It's not just about me. There's 11 other guys, 10 other guys, out there on the field when I take the field to punt. Everyone's got a role to do, everyone's got a job to do and those guys have my back and I've got their back. So I'm very much looking forward to it.”
Now that Rendell has faced almost every test college football will throw at him, it should allow him to hone in more on the mechanics, and not worry about the moment as much.
“Punting is all technical,” Rendell said. “It's much like a golf swing. So I've been working on that all offseason, just about building consistency in my technique. Every person is going to be a little bit different, but the principles remain the same. I've implemented that in practice, and I'm looking forward to implementing that in games.
“It's very technical, but there's also a mental and emotional side of it as well, which I've been able to really build on as well. I'm a lot more aware of where I need to give my focus and attention. And I've put that into practice as well.”
Rendell also understands placing too much focus on the mechanics can backfire on punters. Instead, he chooses to trust the work he puts in on the practice field to dictate his technique in the heat of the moment.
“For the most part, you just want to get the ball over your kicking leg and you want to walk as straight as possible and you want to swing up and through the ball,” Rendell said. “Something that helps me do that is just picking a target where I want to kick the ball down fields. Then you're not necessarily thinking about those things as you're out there executing because the last thing you want to do is get caught up about how you're going to kick the ball.
“So something that's really helped me is literally just picking a target where I want the ball to go and through building consistency through reps, my body knows how to kick it to where I wanna go.”
Still, every punt is not going to be perfect, Rendell understands that too. Instead, he is choosing to focus on the overall process of improvement, rather than getting down over a misfired boot.
“What I've been able to do is adopt a process over outcome mindset,” Rendell said. “No one's perfect, you're not always going to get it right, especially when you're trying out new things, but as long as you're adhering to your process and staying consistent with that, the outcome is going to look after itself. It is just about really delving into the process and not worrying too much about the outcome.”
The Meblourne, Australia native isn’t just focusing on punting either, and with Biagi known to utilize trick plays on special teams, Rendell wants in on the fun.
“I've been trying to push the strength and conditioning coaches to put a GPS tracker on my back so I can show them that I've got a good top speed,” Rendell said. “I'm sure I could mix it with some of the big boys, but we'll have to wait and see with that one.”
While questions marks still remain on Rendell’s future at Notre Dame — he hasn’t yet received approval to play a third season — the punter is just focused on the next punt. No matter the situation.
“Coach Freeman always says, ‘It's a mistake to waste time daydreaming about an uncertain future.’ All my attention and focus is on the present moment and the season ahead.”
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