photo by: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Michigan State kicker Martin Connington (29) kicks a field goal during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Iowa, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025, in Iowa City, Iowa.

A host of Kansas football players tried their hand at saying “Rock Chalk” in British accents in a social media video KU posted in the spring, but only one actually called up an English parent to do it on his behalf.

That was KU kicker Martin Connington, whose father’s side of the family hails from York, England. Needless to say, they are excited about the upcoming Union Jack Classic, a game against Arizona State in London on Sept. 19.

“I have an entire half of family in England as well because my dad was born there, and I’m really excited to finally be able to play in front of them because they don’t really get to come over here,” Connington said. “A lot of them are older and it can make it difficult. But my uncle, who’s from Mexico, will be able to go there too, which should be really exciting.”

Connington has been over to England a handful of times, including as recently as last summer. But as a longtime soccer fan — an Arsenal supporter whose Gunners just won their first title in 22 years (“Sounds like a bandwagon, but when I was younger my soccer team wore the Arsenal jerseys, so it made it super easy”) — the opportunity to kick at Wembley Stadium will be the fulfillment of a “lifelong dream.”

“I can’t even talk about my emotions on how excited I am to get over there,” he said.

Despite his English and Mexican ties, Connington hails from Idaho, where he developed into the one of the top kickers in the 2024 recruiting class. Out of high school, he originally attended Michigan State, where he redshirted as a freshman before going 12-for-16 on field goals and 27-for-28 on extra points in 2025.

In the spring, KU special teams coordinator Taiwo Onatolu cited Connington’s strong leg, experience kicking in the elements and multiple remaining years of eligibility as some of his appealing qualities in the transfer portal.

“Martin is a very clean ball-striker, and he does a really nice job of going in there when it matters and handling those pressure kicks that you need to accomplish,” long snapper Rino Monteforte said. “And he is really smart about his technique. He just does a truly great job.”

Connington joined the Jayhawks in the winter. He said he’s been kicking well over the last several months and together with Kyle Deween — KU’s assistant special teams, kickers & punters coach — has been honing on the technical details.

“I’ve been just trying to do a better job of staying on my line,” Connington said. “It can be easy to overswing and kind of try to attack it because you want to be confident. You don’t want to kind of like half-go into a kick. But it’s been good trying to just really be short and concise with my first step, so I make sure I’m going right to where I want to go, and just kick it through.”

The environmental conditions of Kansas have required a slight adjustment for Connington, who has had to be especially focused on “hitting a clean ball” amid the swirling winds. He said he knew the region had a reputation for storms, but it was still a bit alarming, after he arrived, to hear tornado sirens.

“It’s a whole new environment,” he said. “But I don’t think it was much of a change because the process is still the same.”

It’ll remain the same as he gets some scattered preseason opportunities to kick inside of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium instead of just on the Jayhawks’ practice fields. Head coach Lance Leipold has said KU is expecting to practice in the stadium on Saturday.

“I find it a lot easier to kick in stadiums, just because you have a lot of different aiming points you can actually go at,” Connington said. “Obviously in high school you kind of get used to nothing, where you’re like, ‘I’m going to pick a cloud. I don’t know what I’m going to kind of go at.’

“But in college it can be easier and more difficult in its own way. I think it’s very important that you kind of visualize that. We talk about that in our specialist meetings as well, how (to) just get to a quiet space and envision the stadium we’re going to go to.”

It shouldn’t be hard for the KU specialists to picture the venerable Wembley. Connington is part of a new-look group of specialists that also includes Monteforte and Australian punter Matthew Gill. In fact, Connington noted that Gill’s father is also English, as are the parents of newly added backup punter Ben Shipley.

“We have a big specialist crew of English blood in us, which is super exciting, and we’re all ecstatic,” Connington said.