And now there are three.

And now there are three.

The Hawaii football team’s punting battle is now among Gehrig Heil, Gannon Miller and Australian newcomer Bryce Milford.

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“The best man will play,” special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield said of Saturday’s game against New Mexico State at the Clarence T.C. Ching Complex. “The guys understand that. It’ll be a game-time decision.”

Miller, who attended the Air Force Prep Academy last fall, is on the developmental track and did not punt in the Warriors’ first two games. Heil is 32nd nationally with an average of 42.85 yards per punt, though he was also blocked for a safety in the opener against Stanford. Milford, an alumnus of Prokick Australia, joined the Rainbow Warriors last Friday.

“The competition looked pretty good today,” Heil said following Tuesday’s practice. “I’m not sure what situation we’ll use.”

Sheffield said Heil, who transferred in January after a freshman semester at Texas, is proficient in placing punts in the targeted lane between the sideline and numbers … in games.

“He’s not necessarily a good practice player, but he’s really good in games,” Sheffield said of Heil. “He does a great job of placing the ball where we need it placed in a manageable space. He’s working on creating more hang (time), which he’s done. He’s continued to work to get better. And that’s all I can ask him to do.”

Against Stanford, Heil broke out the roll-out punt, a drive in which he creates a top-spin bouncer. He learned that tactic during training camp. Against UNLV, he went back to the spiral-punt technique from behind the two-blocker shield.

“I feel I’m more of an in-game punter,” Heil said. “I perform when it really matters. There’s still a lot to improve on.”

For Milford, the journey has been long, and not just because of the 5,527 miles between Melbourne and Manoa. In January, he committed to the Warriors. Needing to earn college credits in Australia, Milford hoped to enroll at UH by mid-June. After passing those classes, he learned he needed to earn credits in two online courses. He enrolled in July.

“I spent every day working on them,” he said. “As painful as it was, it was really challenging. There were times I didn’t think I could finish, at least in time. But as you do whenever you want something bad enough, you’ll do whatever it takes.”

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He finished in mid-August. He then worked on obtaining his student visa.

“Couldn’t sort out getting a visa until I finished those two courses,” Milford said. “Crazy, crazy process.”

His visa was approved last Friday in Australia. He then booked a one-way ticket to Honolulu. Because of the 20-hour time difference, he landed in Honolulu midday Friday. He participated in team meetings that night at a Waikiki hotel. The next day, he punted during warm-ups ahead of the nationally televised game against UNLV.

“As you can imagine, the last few weeks there was stress and anxiousness,” he recalled. And little sleep. “Whirlwind couple days.”

The left-footed Milford developed leg strength and accuracy competing in Australian rules football in the Victorian Football League. He earned spending money working in real estate, as a worker in a factory that made pre-mixed cocktails for bars in Melbourne, and as a stocker at Woolworths (a grocery store that is not related to America’s Woolworth five-and-dime stores).

In 2024, Milford suffered a broken right collarbone.

“I decided that was the best time to take up something new,” he said.

He grew up watching select NFL games on the DAZN streaming platform. While many Australians were fans of the Rams and 49ers, Milford favored the Minnesota Vikings, largely because of running back Adrian Peterson. Milford signed up with Prokick Australia with aspirations of punting. Former UH punters Alex Dunnachie, Stan Gaudion, Scott Harding, Lucas Borrow and Billy Gowers were Prokick alumni.

“I have a good connection with them,” Sheffield said. “They haven’t sent me someone who’s crap yet.”

Preferring spiral punts, Milford can launch point-of-contact kicks up to 80 yards. While training in Australia, he touched 5.3 seconds in hang time. Wearing pads, he has hit “a few 5.0s.” He said he tries a sliding ratio of, say, 45 yards with a 4.5 hang time.

“I want to make sure there’s no return,” Milford said.

Sheffield said Milford did well in Tuesday’s field test.

“I’m happy with what he did his first day,” Sheffield said. “I like where he’s headed.”

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