Harding gets kick out of doing it all

A secret to Hawaii football player Scott Harding’s success was keeping a secret.

For three weeks, Harding could not tell anyone outside of the team that he would be the Warriors’ punter for the opener against Southern California. During warmups, kicker Kyle Niiro practiced punting.

"We hid it pretty well," Harding said. "(USC) didn’t even think we had a punter. I think they thought Kyle Niiro might be the punter."

In place of suspended Alex Dunnachie, Harding averaged 37.1 yards on seven punts, including one that was downed on the 1. His first three were on rollouts to the right side. When the Trojans stacked that side, he ran to the opposite side and squib-kicked it with his left foot. That he could kick with both feet was yet another secret.

"I’m right-footed, but I can kick with my left foot, as well," said Harding, who was raised in Australia and played professional Aussie rules football for six seasons before joining the Warriors last year. "In our game back home, the main skill is to kick the ball accurately and deliver it to another player. If you can kick with both sides, you don’t really get caught in a bad position."

He said an injury during his second preseason in Aussie football helped increase his versatility.

"I got hurt, and I couldn’t kick with my right foot," he said. "I decided to kick with my left foot for a whole preseason. I guess that made me left-footed."

With Dunnachie’s suspension, Harding was asked to audition. He tried several punting styles before settling on the rugby-styled rollout in which the football squibs through the layers of the return team.

"I can’t believe how well it worked out," Harding said.

Harding said he chose to switch sports — and move to Hawaii — when he began to crave new challenges.

"I wanted to see what else was out there," he recalled. "I always watched the NFL. I loved watching American football. I wished I could do that. It came to the point where I said, ‘Hey, maybe I can do that.’ "

At UH, he also is the top strong-side receiver, punt returner and holder.

Of his workload, he said, "I love it. It’s like learning a video game. You’re learning all of the different parts."

His next lesson is celebrating touchdowns. After catching his first scoring pass this past Saturday, he quickly dropped the ball to the turf.

"There was a laugh in the team meeting," Harding said of the video-review session. "I didn’t realize I threw it away too quickly because I was excited. I’m glad they still called it a touchdown."