Oklahoma needs improvement from their special teams play if they want to be better in close games in 2023.
Specialists are the unsung heroes of a football team. They rarely get praised when they do their job at a high rate. Usually, the only time they are talked about is when things are going wrong.
The Sooners’ special teams were very up and down last season. They had some moments like the fake field goal run against Iowa State, or Jalil Farooq’s work in the return game. But they also had moments when their fakes didn’t work out or they allowed a long kick return after a momentum-gaining touchdown.
The one person who had a really good year in 2022 was punter Michael Turk. Turk was a special teams weapon, flipping the field for the Sooners.
The one negative you could say is he struggled with the shorter punts and pinning the opponents inside the 10. Outside of that, he was great.
The Sooners’ punt coverage team ranked No. 10 in the nation, in large part to Turk’s impressive hangtime.
Unfortunately, he’s off to the NFL. Replacing him will be difficult. Their answer might be a two-punter system for 2023.
Josh Plaster will handle the majority of the punting duties. Central Michigan transfer Luke Elzinga could be the one who handles the close-range punts.
Elzinga was third-team All-MAC in 2022 after averaging 42.2 yards per punt, which ranked third in the conference. He also pinned 22 punts inside the 20.
As for the kicking duties, the Sooners return Zach Schmit after he had an up-and-down season, much like the team as a whole.
He was 12-of-18 on field goals with a long of 46 yards. He did make all of his extra points and scored one touchdown. On kickoffs, he had 58 touchbacks on 79 attempts. He needs to be better in the kicking game to help the Sooners reach their goals this season.
When he didn’t kick it out of the endzone, the return team didn’t help him out much. The Sooners finished No. 123 in the nation in kick return defense, allowing nearly 25 yards per return.
They also need to improve in the return game. The Sooners ranked 70th in the nation in average yards per kick return but they finished 12th in punt return yards per return.
The punt return game with Marvin Mims was really good early in the season but fell off in the second half of the year.
As for the kickoff return, the returners changed throughout the year. Billy Bowman was probably their best return man early in the year, but as we saw last season, the Sooners can’t afford to lose him to injury, especially on a kickoff return. Farooq provided a spark in the kick return game, averaging 22.9 yards per return. His ability to run with the ball makes him a dangerous returner.
It’ll be interesting to see who they end up going with to return kicks or if they go with a more conservative approach and fair catch a lot of attempts. Brent Venables has preached aggression, so I doubt that’s the approach they’ll take.
Special teams can be the key to the outcome of a game. The importance of this unit might be getting overlooked a bit heading into fall camp. However, like other areas on the team, there’s a level of uncertainty surrounding the special teams department.
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