Tech’s Gotsis brings the thunder from Down Under

He comes from a land down under, where women glow and men plunder. And neither gender much cares about the ACC Coastal race.

An Australian in major college football is a rare breed, worthy of our most sincere, scholarly curiosity. Tag him, release him into the wild and watch intently while he hunts the quarterback.

And one of the best things about having Gotsis step forward into prominence? The accent. Run even the most threadbare football cliche through an Australian brogue — and Gotsis already is a better quote than that — it will sound like Mad Max reading Robert Frost.

Importance: Check.

Doesn’t matter if he’s from Timbuktu if he doesn’t ultimately matter. He matters. Tech has to play defense, too, you know.

Gotsis is the lone returning starter on the line and one of two seniors. As a freshman, he was too good to redshirt. Last season, playing the thankless position of nose guard and still was second on the team with 14.5 tackles for a loss (5.5 sacks). He’s 6-foot-5, with long, obstructionist arms — he had an interception and blocked two kicks last season.

A junior who 10 years ago scarcely knew the difference between a punt and a platypus is now in a position of leadership.

A high ceiling: Check.

If anything, his origins tempt some to underrate Gotsis. How can someone so new to the game be this significant? But the truth is, he is a quick study in the ways of defense. And every game holds the potential for improvement.

Now, it’s just a matter of him focusing all that raw ability and gaining consistency, coach Paul Johnson said. Toward that end, Tech is considering moving him a few steps to the outside, to tackle, to better employ his explosiveness.

“He hasn’t played a lot. So every time he goes out and plays, he gets better, just from an experience standpoint,” Johnson said.

“I think he has worked hard in the offseason. He’s probably the strongest he has been. He’s getting to the point where he’s going to have to be a leader over there on defense. He already has been fairly productive — just be more consistent now, really.”

When considering the distance Gotsis has traveled in both miles and ability, there probably isn’t a more thorough compliment than the one paid him by Tech safety Isaiah Johnson:

“He plays football like an American.”

So, how did this happen anyway? How did Louis’ and Doxy’s boy, the son of a Melbourne metro railroad executive, jump his cultural tracks?

Nature, if not nurture, played a significant role. While neither of his parents are giants, there was the big gene in there somewhere. Adam was a stout lad, who would play any of the games offered him. One, naturally, was Aussie Rules Football, a sort of rugby-esque variation that emphasizes continual movement. The preferred body type is large and lean. Gradually, Gotsis’ dimensions suggested that he might be a bit of a snug fit for the game.

His older brother, Peter, had an inspiration. Onto his computer he downloaded the 2006 Rose Bowl, otherwise known as the Vince Young highlight film. Watch this kid, he told Adam. What do you think?

“It was pretty cool,” Adam remembered.

“I remember looking at all those athletes, seeing how big and physically strong those guys were, all about my brother’s age.

“It’s crazy to think I’m one of those guys now.”

Having been suitably impressed, Gotsis couldn’t just go to his middle school and sign up for the team. As difficult as it is to image a society without football in the schools, Australia doesn’t offer its pupils that option. Somehow they simulate a complete educational experience without the Friday night lights.

There are, however, club teams scattered about the bigger cities, where the oddity of football is tolerated. Adam and his brother sought out the nearest, the Monash Warriors.

So, they pull up to their first practice and the 14-year-old Gotsis notes through the car window that many of the players appeared to blot out the sun. For there aren’t enough participants to break up into age groups, and everyone up to 18 gets thrown into the same pool.

“I saw all these grown men and I’m like, ‘I’m not going down there by myself.’ I’m sitting in the car, saying I’m not getting out unless you come with me, Pete,” Gotsis said. Pete took his little brother to the practice field, and his athletic life was radically edited.

Spending most of his first year watching, Gotsis gradually grew into playing size. His was a mix-and-match existence, playing either offensive or defensive lines. Wherever, he served enthusiastically.

“He fell in love with the game. I think he most enjoyed the physical toughness of the game,” said Paul Manera, one of his early coaches when Gotsis advanced to the national team.

Manera is a missionary of sorts, whose company, Bring It On Sports, attempts to grow American football — gridiron, as it’s called down under. It also serves as a bridge for young men there who want to try playing collegiately in the United States. His own college career was a bizarre travelogue, going from Australia to play offensive line first for Itawamba (Miss.) Community College then the University of Hawaii.

The Hawaii assistant who recruited him: Paul Johnson.

When it came time to spread the word on Gotsis, Manera knew that Johnson would be receptive. He put together a tape of Gotsis performing some drills, as well as a few game highlights and sent it far away.

“We watched the tape of him vertical jumping and running around and doing drills and you could see he was athletic,” Johnson said. “(Manera) knew what it took to play at that level.”

Was it a hard sell? “Not once we saw his size,” Johnson said.

Something Tech may want to file away for its future recruiting plans: “We still have other big kids who can run,” Manera said.

“If he has any more to recommend we’ll probably look at them,” Johnson said.

If there are any more like Gotsis over there, grab them. He arrived just days before the start of 2012 camp, he felt a bit like an outsider. His first day of practice, he remembers tripping awkwardly during an agility drill, odd considering the one advantage he brought with him from Australian Rules Football experience.

“Being athletic, being agile, quick, conditioned, physically strong,” he said, counting the attributes that translated best from one sport to another.

“As a big guy, I have good bend, pretty athletic, I can stay low. I think my speed for a big guy is good. That’s definitely from (Aussie football) because I may be playing on a guy half the size of me and I have to stay with him. And the endurance of that game conditioned me. I didn’t have to focus too much on conditioning to get in shape because I was already so conditioned.”

Blending in quickly, Gotsis appeared in a dozen games as a freshman, and started one, against Duke. Any doubts he might have harbored vanished about the time the leaves began to turn.

Cultural adjustments have come more gradually. Especially for the folks back home. With the 14-hour time difference, the afternoon games here show up online, or on cable, in Melbourne in the dark of morning. “It can be cold, everyone in the house is half asleep. Can be tough to get excited,” his mother, Doxy, said.

The Thursday night games are the best, because they begin at 11 a.m. Friday there — a perfect excuse to miss work, put on their Tech jerseys a half a world away and fire up the barbie for lunch.

Gotsis survives on the occasional visit from home — his parents had an extended stay last season; his twin younger sisters are coming over this season. Packages from home bring him the salty, bitter Vegemite spread that he craves but gags his teammates. His sweet tooth must be served, as well.

“Before any of us travel there, he’s all the time saying: ‘Bring the lollies, bring the lollies,’” his mother said. A 6-5, 285-pound lineman can use the word “lollies,” and no one will say a thing.

Otherwise, homesickness doesn’t seem to be an option. Gotsis has too much else on his mind for thoughts of Australia and friends back home to linger.

“At this stage of my life, my friends back home will always be my friends. I’ve got four years to see what I can do with this opportunity and try to get to the next level. If it happens, that’s the best thing possible,” he said. “If it doesn’t, I’ll still have that core group of friends I’ve made here and made back home.”

Some of those friends back home are expecting big things from Gotsis, game-changing things. “I think Adam can open up more doors for kids over here,” Manera said.

Those closer to Tech expect him to slam many doors shut — on whatever American happens to be holding the football at the time.