The Oklahoma Sooners begin their 2024 season in a little over five weeks. Fall camp is right around the corner, where many position battles will be decided heading into the regular season.
Unlike in the pros, college football doesn’t have a preseason, so everything will be decided on the practice field before OU kicks off its season in August 30.
One area that Oklahoma is looking to improve upon is special teams after a tough 2023 in that department. While Luke Elzinga solidified the punter job over the second half of the season, the kicker spot is another situation entirely.
Zach Schmit has been OU’s starting kicker for each of the past two seasons. He’s been perfect on extra points, but has struggled kicking field goals, especially long ones. In 2022, he went 12-for-18, converting just 66.7 percent of the time. Last season, Schmit went 15-for-21, hitting at a 71.4 percent clip. However, he missed two field goals against UCF that could have doomed the Sooners in a two-point win. He also had misses against Iowa State, Texas, Oklahoma State and BYU. Three of those four games were decided by one score. The Bedlam loss, in particular, was a three-point margin.
Head coach Brent Venables and new special teams analyst Doug Deakin know that the Sooners will have to be sharper on special teams exiting the Big 12 and entering the SEC. Every phase of the game and every aspect of the program has to be operating in peak form to win in the SEC; that’s just the way it is in this conference.
Oklahoma went into the transfer portal to get some help at kicker this offseason, adding Florida State transfer Tyler Keltner. He kicked just one extra point last year for the Seminoles, but was a four-year starter at East Tennessee State, making 75 percent of his field goals.
The Sooners also added a kicker to their Recruiting class in the form of Liam Evans. The true freshman has reportedly got the biggest leg of the group, and could represent the future at the position.
The kicker battle has been happening under the surface this offseason. SoonerScoop’s George Stoia shared from the OU Football Coaches Luncheon that Keltner is the favorite to win the job according to Venables.
Brent Venables says Tyler Keltner is the “odds on favorite” to win the kicking job with Zach Schmit competing with him during camp. #Sooners
— Summer of George (@GeorgeStoia) July 25, 2024
Venables also mentioned that Schmit will still be competing with Keltner in camp to remain the starter.
Whether Keltner continues to have the leg up or the incumbent Schmit takes back the job, the position can’t be the reason Oklahoma falters in one of the many close games they’re about to play in entering the SEC.
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