Illinois football's punter and kicker duo — Blake Hayes and James McCourt — were destined to become friends. When Hayes made the trek from Australia to come play for the Illini in 2017, McCourt had already been on the team for a year, but the two gravitated towards each other because of their international backgrounds.
Hayes was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, all the way up until leaving for college, while McCourt left his home country of Ireland when he was nine years old. Even though McCourt's move was a decade prior and not in the formative years of his life like Hayes' was, the Illini kicker felt inclined to share the lifelong lessons he learned with Hayes.
"It's a little bit different situation, but we take the same lessons from it," Hayes said. "It's been a while since I've seen my family and it was a while since he saw his family in Ireland. And with COVID there's is a lot of uncertainty. One thing we know is that we have family here, whether it's James who I'm really close to, whether it's a KPS group, or whether it's other guys in the locker room, coaches, they're all here for us. It makes those tough times a little easier when you've got that second family over here."
Gabby with The Lads
The uniqueness of being international student-athletes created an instant connection between the two, but they ended up just having the same interests and similar personalities that meshed well inside and outside of football.
So when head coach Bret Bielema joined the Illini family in the winter, he immediately saw the connection Hayes, McCourt and the rest of the KPS unit had and took a liking to their camaraderie. As preparation for Big Ten Media Days rolled around, Bielema considered taking McCourt or Hayes with, but didn't want to split the pair up. Instead, Bielema publicized Hayes' and McCourt's nickname at the podium at Big Ten Media Days in front of a national audience on Big Ten Network.
It was a pretty easy decision for McCourt and Hayes — "The Lads." And while "The Lads" was new to the media and even Bielema, it's a nickname that's been around since 2017 when former Illini and Australian Zac Holman started using it with Hayes and McCourt in reference to their international backgrounds. But the nickname has extended well past the two as they often use "lads" to refer to the KPS unit or just the entire team.
"I just went to them and said, 'Hey, I'm going to reference you and talk about you.' because they're really two special kids," Bielema said. "The fact that they're both born out of this country is so unique. I came up with a couple different things like the International Specialists Association, ISA, everybody has cool little initials. I said, 'Hey, whatever you come up with within reason, I'll back you up.' They came up with 'The Lads.' I tried to use it and capitalize it."
While Hayes and McCourt have always been confident yet humble individuals, hearing their head coach constantly and publicly backing them has helped the KPS unit grow even stronger.
But supporting the lads was easy for Bielema to do from the start as he saw how much talent McCourt and Hayes each had, along with their natural football IQ.
"The best thing is, you give them whatever catchphrase you want to give in their production is what's going to matter," Bielema said. "They're really truly special. Things that I know as a coach we'll really try to gain playing around and take advantage of situations game wise. They both just amaze me with their skill set, but also their awareness. Like a lot of times, I would just tell kickers or punters I want you to execute what we ask you to execute at the highest level. And these guys take it to different extremes."
The support from Bielema was visible from the moment the lads met him and was a defining factor in their return as super-seniors. But the two also felt they had goals left as a team to accomplish in college and wanted to spark a winning culture at Illinois.
"The amount of people that we have back from my class and Blake's class that are a year apart speaks volumes to how much this place means to us," McCourt said. "I know we all have of a debt to pay to this place, because it's invested in us, this University, with a great education, you know, lifelong lessons, lifelong friends. We just want to give back to the fans, a winning season and kind of set off a winning tone for the future of this program. We really feel like we have all the abilities to kind of change this place around and bring a winning culture to University of Illinois and go back to where we know it can be and where it's been in the past."
They also knew another season at Illinois would help them in achieving their long-term dream of playing in the NFL. Having one of the most experienced KPS units in the nation has garnered national recognition for McCourt, Hayes and longsnapper Ethan Tabel.
McCourt, an All-Big Ten honorable mention in 2020 is one of seven Illini on Athlon's Preseason All-Big Ten Teams. Hayes is another one of those seven and is currently Mel Kiper's No. 5 NFL Draft punting prospect. Tabel, recently named to the Mannelly Watch List, is rated at Mel Kiper's No. 2 long snapper prospect.
But taking that next step in football can only come with success this season, which resides at the front of the KPS unit's minds.
"The way you play here, that will help bring wins and as a byproduct of that, that'll help for the next level," Hayes said. "So I think for me personally, right now, next level isn't a goal at the moment. It's about bringing wins. And I think that that confidence that Coach B is instilled in us has come from the other guys in the special teams. Like with Ethan our snapper, he's always doing his best. And then even the coverage teams, those guys are really gritty out there and love to get downfield, especially on kickoff and stuff like that. So, it's about the culture that has been built with the special teams that kind of goes back to the lads just like having that camaraderie with the guys. It's not just another player. It's really a special play that we like to go out there. All the guys around us are really putting in 100%. It really makes us put in 100% as well."
