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New Orleans. Brad Wing told his friends back in Melbourne to Google “Tiger Stadium.” Jesse Williams tried to explain what college football was like to his pals in Brisbane by describing what Tuscaloosa, Alabama, is like on an autumn Saturday.

“I wouldn’t say crazy. That’s a little mean,” he said. “On another level, definitely.”

For the first time in as long as anybody can remember, two Australians will have starring roles in the Bowl Championship Series climax when Louisiana State University meets Alabama tonight.

Wing is the brassy freshman punter for the top-ranked LSU Tigers, the kid who grew up playing Australian Rules football and dreamed of making it big. Williams is the mammoth defensive tackle for the No. 2 Crimson Tide, the guy covered with tattoos and sporting a Mohawk whose soft voice and thoughtful demeanor manage to put people at ease.

They’ve earned quite a following back home, where the game will be aired to an audience that still views American football as a novelty.

“I don’t think it’ll ever happen again,” Wing said, “and I’m not sure if it’s ever happened before. It’s sort of a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It’s crazy to have two Australian kids playing in the biggest game in American sport.”

Wing’s introduction to the game came through his father, David, who was a high-level Australian Rules football player and once tried out for the Detroit Lions as a punter.

The elder Wing was coaching for the Sandringham Dragons, one of the clubs in the feeder league for the top-flight Australian Football League. His son was just a sprightly fellow on the youth team, but his talent for delivering accurate, booming kicks had already started to emerge.

Soon it became evident that no matter how good of a leg he had, his ability would only take him so far.

“He realized very quickly there’s not much point being a pauper, kicking around a country town for a hundred bucks a week and saying, ‘I’m a professional footballer,’ ” said the Dragons’ regional manager, Wayne Oswald, who has followed Wing’s career across the Pacific.

Some family friends in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, agreed to host Wing for his final year and a half of high school, but it was still difficult to move. Even now, he admits there were many nights he wondered whether he had made a mistake. It wasn’t until he was punting for Parkview Baptist High School that he felt more at home, right about the time he was catching the attention of LSU coaches.

Wing may have felt lonely during those early days in America, but he’s not feeling that way anymore.

His parents joined him a few weeks ago, uniting the family again. And he’s become part of a much larger extended family: the 90,000-plus who pack Tiger Stadium to watch LSU play.

“It’s been difficult to explain to my friends the magnitude of college football, and definitely LSU football,” he said. “I just have to tell them to Google ‘Tiger Stadium’ and they get the idea.”

Wing played a big role in the Tigers’ 9-6 overtime victory over Alabama in November, unloading a 73-yard punt that flipped the field position in a nip-and-tuck game.

Williams played rugby and basketball growing up in Brisbane but was coaxed into football by his friend, Lachlan McIntyre, who played quarterback for a club team called the Bayside Ravens.

Despite the Queensland state league having just 600 or so players, coaches from the University of Hawaii caught wind of the defensive tackle. Williams initially planned to play for them, but there was a falling out and he landed at Arizona Western, a junior college in Yuma, Arizona.

Williams was so dominant his first season there that it seemed every major college coach was at his door. He chose Alabama, though he admitted he’d rather eat Vegemite than barbecue and was still naive about the enormity of football in the South.

“It’s hard to explain that every weekend I play in front of 110,000 people,” Williams said. “Some of my friends hardly believe what I do.”

Williams’ father was born in India to an American dad and a Burmese mother, and he moved to Australia in the early 1970s. His mother is a Torres Strait islander, and Williams has already been earmarked as a role model for indigenous kids in Australia.

“A lot of people in Brisbane, a lot of indigenous people for sure, have noticed. ‘Hey, this guy is doing something,’ ” Arthur Williams said. “Bit by bit, he’ll get recognition. It could be from the NFL. I’d be very disappointed if he didn’t become a top 20 pick in the NFL when he’s ready.”

Just as Wing has become a folk hero in Baton Rouge, Williams has engendered quite the following around Alabama’s campus. He’s routinely stopped for photos and autographs, even though he tries to lie low, something nearly impossible given his imposing appearance.

Not only is he 1.93 meters tall and 145 kilograms, Williams’ body is covered by all manner of tattoos. Tribal symbols and scrolling artwork cover wide swaths of skin. The tattoo on his right hand reads, “I stopped checking for the monster under the bed when I realized the monster is me.”

But it’s the one on Williams’ left shoulder, part of a note written by his father when he decided to play football in America, that may best describe his journey.

“He grew into a proud young man, a determined breed he left his land. Put down his spear and hung up his shield, and became a warrior on the football field.”

Associated Press