Walk-on kicker Matt Ganyard made the mistake of doing the math.
At 34 years old, he’s far and away the oldest member of the University of Virginia football team.
“The freshmen on the team are closer to my daughter’s age than they are to my age,” Ganyard said to a chorus of groans from the gathered reporters in late August. “So that kind of set the tone right off the bat for age gaps.”
A father of two — 3-year-old Savannah and 9-month-old Noah — Ganyard is actually older than quarterback coach Taylor Lamb (29) and overlapped at Virginia with linebacker coach Clint Sintim.
To say this situation is unusual would be a massive understatement.
Ganyard graduated from Virginia in 2011 with a degree in history, and had never played football. Like, ever. In high school he was on the soccer team and continued his career with the club soccer team in college. He tried out for the football team the spring of his second year, but then-head coach Al Groh didn’t need the depth at the position.
For anyone else, that would have been the end of the dream of kicking for a college squad. Not for Ganyard.
After graduation, he followed in his father’s footsteps into Marine Corps aviation. This meant a couple years in Pensacola, Florida at flight school before moving across the country to San Diego, California to join a squadron as an AH-1 Cobra helicopter pilot. At each step of this journey, Ganyard kept kicking — including practicing on random fields during port calls in countries like Jordan — and watched YouTube videos to learn tips and techniques.
Ten years and an entire military career later, Ganyard returned to Charlottesville, and the dream lives on. Now a second year at Virginia’s prestigious Darden School of Business, Ganyard is pursuing his M.B.A. and has been named the starter on kick-offs for the team’s season-opener against No. 12 Tennessee in Nashville.
And it nearly didn’t happen.
Despite never being a member of any NCAA team, Ganyard had to apply for a waiver to make this season a possibility. Every student has five years of eligibility from the NCAA that starts when you step on campus. Ganyard’s clock started in 2008, but — thanks to an NCAA rule — it paused in 2011 when he went active duty. As soon as he came off active duty, it resumed, and Ganyard hoped his first year at Darden would allow him to try one final time to make the team.
But due to schedule for business school, it would have been impossible for him to make both practice and class. It looked bleak once again, especially when the waiver submitted was initially denied. That’s right — the NCAA initially denied the waiver of a Marine Corps veteran who had never played a single second of a college sport. Ganyard, special teams analyst Drew Meyer and the Virginia compliance team gave it one last shot in the form of an appeal.
“I think one of the greatest things somebody can give is their time, and they put in so much time and effort to make this waiver of possibility. So I can’t thank them enough,” said Ganyard of the UVA team that helped make things happen. “Somehow, after the initial denial from the NCAA and a subsequent appeal, we found out about four days before camp that the appeal went through. Next thing you know, I’m finishing my summer internship and getting a physical with an NCAA football team.”
For someone that has faced the challenges that go along with month-long deployments to the Middle East and teaching new pilots the ins-and-outs of helicopters, football presents a whole new ball game — literally.
Ganyard had never put on pads or a helmet, relying on his much younger teammates to help, even if they don’t share pop culture knowledge.
“I don’t know enough about football,” Ganyard said with a laugh. “I’m still learning and putting on the pads was one thing. I look over to Vadin [Bruot] next to me and say, ‘Okay, so this goes on first?’ I felt like the scene from Little Giants where he holds up the cup: ‘Does this go here?'”
When asked if anyone on his squad had gotten his reference from the iconic 1994 flick, Ganyard replied, “Not even close.” The age difference is obvious, and the new, old player has earned some playful nicknames from his exuberant teammates to include Pop-Pop, Grandpa and Uncle Matt. “I think they’ve realized in the past three weeks that I’m just another guy with a little more life experience, but at the end of the day, I’m just another guy here to help the team succeed on the field.”
Ganyard said he feels comfortable from 50 yards out on field goal range, and he’s been booming kick-offs about 70-yards into the end zone. While it’s a unique situation that involves going from 0-to-60 in terms of football, he realizes that he also has a method to handle all of it.
Matt Ganyard, #UVA’s 34-year-old walk-on kicker who served in the Marines after graduating Virginia in 2011, was mashing deep kickoffs today at practice. pic.twitter.com/NGJiTAoObl
— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) August 17, 2023
When he feels himself getting anxiety over a kick at practice or stressing about the pressure of a big moment, Ganyard relies on his military experience.
“I’ve had many questions like, ‘Oh, you should be fine handling the pressures of kicking, you flew helicopters,'” Ganyard explained. “I understand the comparison, but it’s also very much apples and oranges. I think there are certain tools and techniques you can use and translate well, like the compartmentalization and understanding that I’ve got to focus on what I’m doing, block out all the noise, whether it’s radio chatter, or fan noise.”
Ganyard will have a litany of groupies this season, ranging from his classmates at Darden — who have reportedly made tee shirts that read “I KNOW THE KICKER” across the back — to just college football fans rooting for the “old” guy lining up each game. But without a doubt, his wife Marie and their two children will be Matt’s biggest supporters.
“I think asking anybody to be a military spouse is a lot to ask. It’s one of the hardest jobs I can think of, besides being a mother, which she is also,” Ganyard said of his partner. “And then after all that is said and done, I say, ‘Oh, so I have this fun idea that I want to go kick footballs.'”
It only took 16 years of dedication, perseverance and effort to get there.
