Conor Hunt, a 2020 Hawaii Prep graduate, is transferring from Georgetown to Rice, going from Washington, D.C. to Houston, where he’ll be reunited with a few friends on the football team.
Last year, Hunt made 7 of 12 field goals with a long of 45 yards. He also punted 51 times for an average of 41.7 yards with a long of 66 yards, breaking the single-season record for average yardage and making the all-Patriot League first team.
He’ll be reunited with kicker Tim Horn, a Punahou graduate, who went to Washington before he transferred to the Owls, and running back Dean Connors, who went to HPA before he transferred and graduated from Murrieta Valley (Calif.) High.
Rice is a private research university in Houston which plays in Conference USA. The Owls went 4-8 last year. But they’re loaded with an $8.1 billion endowment, according to Wikipedia.
“I wanted to play on a bigger platform and go to a bigger academic academy,” said Hunt, who will major in environmental science. “I’m still at Georgetown. I have to finish my sophomore year. I’ll go to Rice as a junior during the summer workouts in June. I just visited. I was there the last three days in Houston. I stayed on campus and toured the facilities and campus.”
In the changing landscape of college football, Rice will ditch C-USA for the American Athletic Conference. But here’s a twist the Owls didn’t anticipate. The three biggest football names, Houston, Cincinnati, and Central Florida, will depart the AAC for the Big 12 before Rice joins the conference.
Multiple reports have said Rice will join the AAC in 2023, along with five other C-USA schools, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, North Texas, Texas San Antonio, North Carolina at Charlotte and Florida Atlantic.
Rice athletic director Joe Karlsgaard said, “Since the breakup of the Southwest Conference about 25 years ago, we’ve aspired to align ourselves with other institutions based on academic values, geography, and tradition. The opportunity to join the AAC checks all three boxes.”
Hunt leaves a well-known basketball school for a Rice program looking to find its footing in a new home. The top AAC teams will be East Carolina (7-5), Tulsa (7-6), and SMU (8-4). Navy (4-8), which is coached by former Hawaii assistant Ken Niumatalolo, is also in the conference.
The Hoyas went 2-8 last year, and the basketball team hasn’t had a winning season since 2018-19 under school legend Patrick Ewing, who was named Georgetown coach in 2017
Hunt has a better path than his football team. He hopes to make it to the NFL one day. If not, an environmental science degree would likely land him a job in Hawaii.
“I’m a realist. I want to focus on my punting,” he said. “The other kid (Horn) Rice signed is from Punahou, and that guy is a stud. He’s more suited for the (place-kicking) job. At the end of the day, if there’s a chance to play on Sundays, that’s the goal.”
His favorite NFL team was the Pittsburgh Steelers and his favorite players were quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell. They’re all gone from the team.
So who’s the QB?
“That’s the big question,” Hunt said. “Either they draft someone or sign a free agent.”
At Georgetown, Hunt took a bit of time to take advantage of the sights to see in Washington, D.C.
“I was doing a lot of training, but I’d go to the Smithsonian Museum and the zoo,” he said. “It was all free, same thing for the zoo. There are also a lot of good places to eat in D.C., a ton of variety, and different types of food. I went to Georgetown basketball. It was pretty cool. They play in the same arena as the Washington Wizards, the Capital One Arena. It’s super sick and has choke seats.”
The Hawaii boy can travel more than 4,700 miles to college, but he still carries that local pigeon charm. At least, he can share Spam musubi with Connors and Horn.
“Those guys will be my roommates,” Hunt said. “We’re already close. I played soccer with Tim when I was younger. We all know each other.”