Tag: Liam Evans

Who has the leg up in Oklahoma’s kicker competition heading into fall camp?

Incoming kicker has a leg up in the competition entering fall camp.

The Oklahoma Sooners begin their 2024 season in a little over five weeks. Fall camp is right around the corner, when 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 Aug. 30.

One area Oklahoma is looking to improve upon is special teams after a tough 2023 in that department. While [autotag]Luke Elzinga[/autotag] solidified the punter’s job over the second half of the season, the kicker spot is another situation entirely.

[autotag]Zach Schmit[/autotag] has been OU’s starting kicker for each of the past two seasons. He’s been perfect on extra points, but he has struggled kicking field goals, especially long ones. In 2022, he went 12-for-18, converting just 66.7% of the time. Last season, Schmit went 15-for-21, hitting at a 71.4% 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 [autotag]Bedlam[/autotag] loss, in particular, was a three-point margin.

Head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] and new special teams analyst [autotag]Doug Deakin[/autotag] know the Sooners will have to be sharper on special teams exiting the [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] and entering the [autotag]SEC[/autotag]. 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 [autotag]transfer portal[/autotag] to get help at kicker this offseason, adding Florida State transfer [autotag]Tyler Keltner[/autotag]. He kicked just one extra point last year for the Seminoles, but was a four-year starter at East Tennessee State, making 75% of his field goals.

The Sooners also added a kicker to their [autotag]recruiting[/autotag] class, [autotag]Liam Evans[/autotag]. The true freshman reportedly has 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.

Venables also mentioned Schmit will compete 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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Kicking, special teams became a problem for OU in 2024; Sooners banking on competition to pay off

Special teams wasn’t special for the Oklahoma Sooners last year but here’s hoping competition and a coaching change can turn it around.

The Sooners struggles on special teams went beyond the kicking situation in 2023. The return game didn’t provide much and was at times a detriment to the team.

Head coach Brent Venables had to find a new special teams coordinator after Jay Nunez left for the same position at Alabama. But that might have been a blessing in disguise.

According to ESPN’s overall efficiency rankings for 2023, Oklahoma’s special teams—placekicking, punting, punt return, kickoff coverage, and kickoff return—ranked No. 127 last year.

That’s not good enough, especially for a team that, while much improved, needed to be perfect in other aspects of the game. Heading to the SEC, there’s less margin for error as Oklahoma’s talent won’t be enough to win games. They’ll need every bit of a competitive advantage. That could come by way of special teams.

So Venables went out and hired former San Diego State special teams coordinator Doug Deakin as a special teams analyst.

Why Deakin?

In each of the last three seasons, the Aztecs finished in the top 10 in ESPN’s special teams efficiency rating. In 2022, the Aztecs ranked No. 2, and last year, they were No. 9. While he’s an analyst and won’t be on the field during game days, Deakin will coordinate this unit with the rest of the on-field staff to create a better and more positively impactful special teams unit for the Sooners. And he comes to Oklahoma with some work to do on the kicking and return game front.

Oklahoma’s field goal kicking wasn’t as good as it needed to be for the Sooners in 2023. Sure, it wasn’t horrible, but by the end of the season, trotting out Zach Schmit genuinely felt like a coin flip, even from distances inside the 40-yard line.

The Sooners’ kicker made less than 75% of his kicks for the second straight season. Schmitt missed six kicks in 2022 and six in 2023. Schmit was just 6 of 11 on attempts from beyond 30 yards. He had a miss in Oklahoma’s three-point loss to Oklahoma State that turned out to be a killer.

So, where do the fixes lie? Well, competition and better schemes are the plan.

OU secured a commitment from Florida State transfer kicker Tyler Keltner this winter.

Keltner is a redshirt senior who spent the first four seasons of his college career at East Tennessee State. He made 56 of 74 field-goal attempts and earned two All-SoCon second-team selections. He then spent this past season at Florida State, where he appeared in one game and converted on his only attempt.

He and Liam Evans, a 2024 commit, will add fresh legs and competition to that room. Evans was ranked the number seven kicker in the nation, according to Kohl’s Kicking Camp.

The punt return game can be better too. After [autotag]Gavin Freeman[/autotag]’s return for a touchdown against Arkansas State, the return game never seemed to click. Freeman muffed multiple punts in crucial moments that flipped the momentum in games. He also had just 122 punt return yards on the season, including that 82 yard return against Arkansas State.

The competition for punt return duties will be much more open than last year. Freeman will have a shot, but [autotag]Deion Burks[/autotag] and [autotag]Jaquaize Pettaway[/autotag] could push for opportunities. On kick return, Jalil Farooq will likely continue to lead the way for the Sooners, but Oklahoma will push him with competition as well.

According to the ESPN efficiency marker, Deakin’s special teams units at his previous school ranked in the top 10 nationally for three straight years.

If there’s a positive outlook on the return game, it’s the emergence of punter Luke Elzinga. Though it took time for the Sooners to settle on who their punter would be last year, once they went with Elzinga, they never turned back. His efficiency, power, and ability to drop the ball inside the 20 allowed Brent Venables to play the field position game more.

As the Sooners move to the SEC, they’ll see their competition improve week in and week out. They can’t afford to be average in any phase of the game and special teams is an area that has to be a winning phase for them in 2024.

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