Meet Irishman Adam Gibbs, Penn State's punter commit and college football's newest 'superfan'

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Adam Gibbs first started watching college football in 2024 at the age of 17.

So when Gibbs, a native of Newry, Northern Ireland, found out from his coach in June that he'd have the opportunity to punt and kick in front of coaches at Penn State, it was time to do a little research and learn something about these Nittany Lions from rural Pennsylvania.

"I found out they were ranked," Gibbs said of a rather enlightening Google search he can now laugh about.

"(That) they were in the College Football (Playoff) semifinals last year. (That) there was a good returning team this year."

And James Franklin? The head coach?

"The man's big time," Gibbs said of the 53-year-old who offered him a full scholarship on the spot after watching him punt at Beaver Stadium this summer. "Just out of pure joy, I nearly hugged him."

Gibbs, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder with a big personality and a huge leg, will have plenty of time to learn more about Franklin and the Nittany Lions in the coming years. He committed to Penn State on June 29, one week after receiving the offer, and is thrilled to join the growing list of Irishmen kicking in American football. Last year, Gibbs quickly adopted three teams to cheer on, to follow the "lads," as he called them -- Sean O'Haire (Richmond), Jack Scullion (Rutgers) and Paddy McAteer (Troy). O'Haire has since transferred to Maryland.

Gibbs is just starting to realize how improbable his journey is.

"To be committed to Penn State, you couldn't even say it's a dream come true because you would've never dreamed of going somewhere that high," Gibbs said. "But now it's just like -- it's insane.

"Before March of last year, I would never have watched American football, would have never had any interest in it. But now, in the past year, I've become a bit of a superfan. ... I've just been sort of obsessed with the game now for the past year, and it's crazy and just amazing."

Gibbs grew up about 65 miles north of Dublin playing both soccer and Gaelic football -- a cross between rugby and soccer. He was inspired to check out American football last year when Charlie Smyth, who grew up just 10 minutes away from Gibbs' in Newry, signed as a free-agent kicker with the New Orleans Saints in March 2024. Smith had previously played goalkeeper in the Gaelic Athletic Association and joined the Saints through the NFL's International Player Pathway program.

Before signing with the Saints, Smyth had trained with local coach Tadhg Leader, a former professional rugby player from Ireland's West Coast who has made it his mission to canvas Ireland looking for the country's best punters and kickers to connect them with U.S. teams.

"(Smyth) made waves in Ireland -- a guy going from never playing the sport to (playing) in the NFL," Leader said. "So (shortly after) we had an open session where I was looking for guys for college football.

"I remember this guy turning up who was just booming the ball comfortably. He was probably 16 at the time, mid-50s, no problem -- 50-yard field goals that is."

That teenager was Gibbs, who at one point during the session kicked the ball so far that his mother had to hop a fence to retrieve it. Ireland's best athletes are typically kickers, Leader said, so it was common to see players at the practice boot the ball 50 or 60 yards. But Gibbs, at 16, was kicking more like a 20-year-old.

"After the session, just as I was talking to loads of people, I didn't get a chance to speak to him and I didn't know who he was," Leader said. "I just had this guy who was booming the ball on my iPhone, but I didn't know who it was. And then fast forward a week or two, some kid messaged me saying he left his hoodie behind at the practice. ... And then I was able to put two and two together that that was Adam."

Gibbs was initially hesitant about attending another workout, but stuck with it at Leader's urging and began to train with him. A few months later, in June 2024, Leader invited Gibbs along on a pre-planned trip to the United States. Leader had a few other kickers with college interest in the States -- including McAteer -- but knew that coaches were still skeptical of Irish players and would need to see them on American soil before they were comfortable offering a scholarship.

"I was like, 'I think I'll take Adam just to give him exposure to the States and see if he's as good as I think he is. It was also for my own verification," Leader said.

The group worked out at John Carroll University in Ohio.

"He hit a 65-yard field goal and was able to kick off, putting the ball almost equivalent to (into the stands)," Leader said.

Shortly after that trip, McAteer signed with Troy, whose special teams analyst at the time was Allen Tucker. This past May, Tucker made the move to -- you guessed it -- Penn State and coordinated with Leader to bring Gibbs to campus in June to kick for coaches in person.

Gibbs admits he had no expectations for his Penn State trip. After a layover in Amsterdam, he and Leader landed at JFK Airport in New York and spent the five-hour drive to State College talking about Gibbs' process.

He had just 15 minutes to warm up before the 30-minute workout commenced in front of Tucker and special teams coordinator Justin Lustig. That's when Franklin -- who was on one of his "old man walks" as he calls his strolls around the stadium -- took off his headphones and came over to chat with Leader.

"And then Adam's first punt that he hit, I have a good video of it, coach Franklin standing over his shoulder, and he hits, I think, 64 yards with 5.3 seconds of hang, which is just abnormal," Leader said.

"After Adam hit a couple of bombs, (Franklin) then walked away with coach Lustig, and at that point, I assumed something good was happening because it was not normal what Adam was doing for a kid of his age. Coach Franklin just pulled me aside and said, 'Listen, would it be OK if we offered Adam a full ride right now?' And so then obviously I said, 'Yeah. That's why we flew from Ireland and drove from New York. That's why we're here.' So that was pretty cool."

Lustig was so excited that he pitched the idea of calling Gibbs' mother back home to share the good news. She was asleep -- it was 1 a.m. in Ireland and she had to be at work at 6 a.m. -- and was caught off guard, thinking something was wrong.

"I had to ring her the next morning just to be like, 'This is actually happening,'" Gibbs said. "She had no words, but she was overjoyed. Dad was overjoyed."

Gibbs announced his commitment to Penn State later that week and has been mesmerized by all the videos of the crowds at Beaver Stadium he has since been sent on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

His Newry community still may not totally understand the magnitude of what's ahead, but he can very much feel the backing of Ireland as he gears up for his next chapter.

For now, the plan is for him to punt and handle kickoffs at Penn State. He's not quite sure yet if he'll enroll early in January 2026 or wait until June. And no, he doesn't have any NIL deals at the moment.

However, he's excited to experience a Penn State game in person, whether it's on a visit later this fall or in uniform the following season. One thing's for certain: He's pumped for the crowd.

"Over here, when I play Gaelic football, it's an amateur sport -- I'm playing in front of 50 people every Tuesday," he said. "To go from playing in front of 50 people to playing in front of 107,000 people, it's a step up that no one at home can physically comprehend in their mind."

So, is Ireland the new Australia when it comes to supplying U.S. colleges with specialists? Not quite, but Leader is proud of his disciples and the impact they are having on American football.

"There's a new wave, a new community of these lads going over and doing it, which is unbelievable," he said. "They're all getting more perspective from each guy's experience.

"The guys have to learn from each other and they all feed back to each other what they're going through to then prepare the next guy. So it's a cool community piece that's part of it, as well -- which Adam will obviously play his role in."