For Florida State and Georgia Tech, Week 0’s game in Ireland will be new territory.

The competition, held at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, is the latest in a series of annual events that kick off the college football season abroad and is called the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.

While it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most Seminoles and Yellow Jackets players, for one player – David Shanahan – it’s a homecoming.

The Georgia Tech punter knows the area he will be playing in on Saturday incredibly well. Shanahan is Irish by birth and played Gaelic football in his youth before switching to American football. He is believed to be the first Irish native to ever receive a full scholarship to play college football in the USA.

“I’m happy for the kid that he has the opportunity to go home,” Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key told ESPN. “It’s always exciting when a kid gets to go home, especially when it’s a long way from here.”

The Yellow Jackets senior will have the unique opportunity to play in front of friends and family when Georgia Tech takes the field for the first game of the 2024-25 college football season.

Learn more about Shanahan and his Irish heritage here.

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Who is David Shanahan?

Shanahan is a senior punter at Georgia Tech. He is entering his fourth season with the Yellow Jackets.

The special teams member began playing rugby and Gaelic football in Ireland, the latter being a mix of American football, soccer and rugby.

“When you’re 15, you train really hard, you’re really hard in the gym,” Shanahan said. “I’m from Kerry, so every town in Kerry has their own club, and the best guys in their club get to play for their county. So I played for the county’s youth teams.”

Like many, his youth revolved around sport. However, as he grew older, he realised that he was no longer as passionate about the sports he played as he once was. He realised that the only way he could continue to play Gaelic football or rugby was to stay in his home town and play for his club.

“There wasn’t much adventure there, I thought,” Shanahan said. “Because I thought, ‘Okay, best case scenario, I’ll just grow up and play for Kerry and never leave my hometown,’ or something. I wasn’t really excited about that.”

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Then American football came into play. Shanahan knew of the Prokick Australia program, which was founded in Australia, a country that has successfully transferred players from rugby and other similar sports to American football. Currently, four NFL punters have come from this program.

Although his plans to go to Australia and train there were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he stuck with it. Eventually, Prokick Australia helped Shanahan land a spot on Georgia Tech’s football roster.

“Obviously the skills have transferred,” Shanahan said. “I tried kicking for a while, but it didn’t come as easily to me as punting. But even in saying that, punting was really hard. It took me a while to get really good at it and be consistent at it.”

Since then, Shanahan has been the Yellow Jackets’ starting punter and made his college debut in 2021. Last season, he averaged 42.4 yards per punt, with his longest being 61 yards. His best punt came in his freshman season, when he threw a 71-yard punt.

“Obviously, as a freshman, I definitely wasn’t good at a lot of those situational things, and I just went out there, swung my leg and hoped for the best,” Shanahan said of the adjustment. “But that’s something that comes from experience, and the coaches have been really good at helping me with that.”

“But I feel like I’ve pretty much got it all figured out now. I’ve been doing this long enough.”

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Where does David Shanahan come from?

Shanahan is from Castleisland, County Kerry, Ireland.

Although he is returning to his homeland, Casteisland is not exactly close to Dublin. The country’s capital is on the west coast, while Casteisland is in the southwest of Ireland. It is about a three-hour drive from one place to the other.

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College football games in Ireland