Tag: Michael Turk

Oklahoma Sooners land three in ESPN’s top 50 college football transfers from the portal era

The Oklahoma Sooners have had a ton of success in the transfer portal as they have landed three of the top 50 of all-time according to ESPN.

The transfer portal giveth and the [autotag]transfer portal[/autotag] taketh away.

The Oklahoma Sooners have been one of the college football teams that have had a great deal of success in the transfer portal era. That era is defined as anyone who transferred between 2018 and 2023, even though technically, the portal didn’t become a thing until October 2018.

So, that eliminates [autotag]Baker Mayfield[/autotag] and [autotag]Kyler Murray[/autotag] from the discussion. But still,Oklahoma has had a history of doing well with transfer players. ESPN (subscription required) came up with a list of the top 50 players in the transfer portal era. The Sooners landed three of them.

The first one came in at No. 50: [autotag]Michael Turk[/autotag]. Turk transferred to Oklahoma from Arizona State and had an average of 48.4 yards per punt with a 44.1 net average over two years.

We start with some special teams love. When you dip into the portal for a punter, “NFL special teams lineage and a 48-yard average” is pretty much exactly what you’re looking for. – Bill Connelly ESPN

Turk was a godsend to the Sooners. He helped shore up any special teams issues. The team and its fans found out quickly how big a loss he was this season.

The next one on the list for Oklahoma was [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] at No. 9. Gabriel transferred from UCF and played the 2022 and 2023 seasons at Oklahoma. He threw for 6,828 passing yards, 688 rushing yards, and 73 total touchdowns in 24 games.

He began his career in 2019, winning 10 games at UCF. Four years later, he won 10 games at OU. He’s seventh in all-time passing yards and eighth in touchdowns … and he still has a year of eligibility left. – Connelly

After losing [autotag]Caleb Williams[/autotag] to the portal, the Sooners were very lucky to get someone as talented as Gabriel to take over at quarterback. He was always underappreciated, but he was a very good quarterback for Oklahoma.

The last one for the Sooners is [autotag]Jalen Hurts[/autotag], coming in at No. 8. Hurts transferred in from the Alabama Crimson Tide and played one season in Norman in 2019. He had 3,851 passing yards, 1,298 rushing yards and 52 total touchdowns in that one season.

He came within three seconds of leading Alabama to a national title as a true freshman, lost his job to Tua Tagovailoa and moved to Norman to completely rehabilitate his reputation under the most QB-friendly coach in the country. It took Joe Burrow and LSU to outscore the Sooners in the CFP. – Connelly

Hurts was close to becoming Oklahoma’s third straight Heisman winner; he finished as the runner-up to Joe Burrow. He led Oklahoma on a magical season and now has Oklahoma and Alabama fans arguing over who takes credit for his NFL success.

That’s what the transfer portal provided for the Sooners. The portal also took away two former Sooners who made the list in Williams and [autotag]Trey Sermon[/autotag].

Fans have mixed feelings about the portal, but it’s clear it is here to stay. It’s time for teams to start embracing it. The Oklahoma Sooners have and to great success.

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Stock Report: Young playmakers rising as Sooners prepare for season’s biggest test

Oklahoma is 5-0 and on a upwards trajectory so check out how they fair in this week’s stock report as they prepare for the Texas Longhorns.

Oklahoma has passed each of the tests put before them through the first five weeks of the season. Now all eyes turn to their Red River Rivals, the Texas Longhorns. To get to that point, the Sooners had to dispatch the last five teams in front of them. The most recent being their final Big 12 matchup with the [autotag]Iowa State Cyclones[/autotag].

The Sooners won in decisive fashion, 50-20. Coming into the game, Brent Venables’ team had to avoid looking ahead and also leave no doubt that they weren’t the teams of the past that got tripped up by Matt Campbell’s Cyclones. Campbell has been a thorn in Oklahoma’s side since taking over the Iowa State program. However, an explosive passing game and stifling second-half defense put the game away.

As the Sooners prepare for Texas, some notable things are on an upward trajectory around Norman. And still, there are areas that aren’t on the right track. Will the positives prove pivotal on Saturday, or will the negatives continue to trend downward and affect Oklahoma’s chances of pulling off the upset of the Longhorns in Dallas?

Transfer punter Luke Elzinga featured on Ray Guy Award watch list

Oklahoma punter Luke Elzinga makes the Ray Guy award watch list ahead of the 2023 season.

Replacing Michael Turk will be an underrated storyline heading into the season. It probably won’t be much of an issue for the first couple of games, but as Oklahoma heads into conference play and the competition levels increase, having a punter capable of flipping field position when needed, like Turk, would be a significant benefit.

Enter Luke Elzinga, a transfer punter from Central Michigan University. Elzinga came over to Oklahoma after three years at CMU, where he was the primary punter for the last three seasons and a three-time All-Mid-American Conference performer.

In his first three seasons at the collegiate level, Elzinga averaged 42.4 yards on his 145 career punts. He’s registered 24 punts of at least 50 yards, 47 fair catches, 61 downed inside the 20-yard line, and only ten touchbacks. To add to his impressive resume, he’s also a three-time All-MAC Academic Team selection.

His performance last year made it possible for him to land on the preseason watchlist for the Ray Guy Award, handed out annually to the nation’s top punter. This marks the second consecutive season that Elzinga has been named to the watchlist for the Ray Guy Award but his first as a Sooner.

Former punter Michael Turk made the preseason watchlist last year before becoming a semifinalist in 2022. He averaged 46.79 yards per punt attempt during the 2022 campaign while earning first-team All-Big 12 honors. Turk was a weapon on special teams for Oklahoma.

Special Teams coordinator Jay Nunez and Oklahoma hope Elzinga can bring a similar level of consistency to the punter position.

With Elzinga’s selection to the preseason watchlist, he joins teammates [autotag]Danny Stutsman[/autotag] and [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] as Sooners named to preseason awards watchlist.

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5 Oklahoma Sooners who could make All-Big 12 first team in 2023

Prior to Big 12 media days, the conference released the preseason All-Big 12 team as voted on by the media. What 5 Sooners that weren’t included could earn postseason honors?

The Big 12 released its All-Big 12 preseason teams just a few weeks ago and only one Oklahoma Sooner made the list, defensive end Ethan Downs.

Three Sooners made the All-Big 12 first team after their 2022 seasons; [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag] Jr., [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], and [autotag]Michael Turk[/autotag]. The only player to make the All-Big 12 preseason team last summer was Turk.

That has us thinking, who are some of the players that have a chance to make the All-Big 12 first team when the season ends that wasn’t a preseason selection?

From improvements defensively to question marks across the league, there are several candidates who could play themselves into postseason honors.

But for this list, I’ve only chosen five.

Oklahoma Sooners need special teams units to be special

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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WATCH: New Dolphins P Michael Turk documents draft process in vlog

What does the draft look like for an undrafted player?

There’s so much production centered on the NFL draft each year. A number of first-round picks are in attendance, and hosting channels ESPN, ABC and NFL Network have look-ins to players’ homes as well for those who didn’t get the invite.

However, for those who aren’t projected to be selected until the later rounds, at the earliest, we don’t really get much.

Former Oklahoma punter Michael Turk, who signed with the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent after the conclusion of the three-day event, documented the whole process, including the update with his signing.

It’s pretty cool to get an inside look from an undrafted player, as we got to see the emotions of the days as well as what teams he thought could potentially draft him.

Now in Miami, Turk will have an opportunity to battle former All-Pro punter Jake Bailey, who struggled in 2022 with the New England Patriots.

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Dolphins may have found a weapon in UDFA P Michael Turk

That last name should sound familiar to Dolphins fans.

Immediately following the selection of the NFL draft’s “Mr. Irrelevant,” Toledo’s defensive lineman Desjuan Johnson to the Los Angeles Rams, teams hit the phones to ink their undrafted free agents.

The Miami Dolphins, as per usual over the last few years, have a long list of rookies who’ll be brought into camp to battle for a spot on the practice squad, and with hard work and a bit of luck, perhaps a spot on the 53-man roster.

In years past, especially the last four, a number of undrafted rookies have made an impact and earned a spot on the full-time roster. In 2019 cornerback Nik Needham was cut during camp, then elevated to the squad and was recently re-signed to remain a Dolphin for at least another season. Another UDFA corner, Kader Kohou was a revelation last season and one of the best undrafted rookies in the NFL.

As announced yesterday, 19 undrafted players are going to head to South Florida to fight for a role on this team, including Oklahoma punter Michael Turk.

A well-traveled and well-taught punter, Turk is the nephew of former Miami Dolphins punter Matt Turk. Another one of his uncles is former NFL long-snapper Dan Turk. Michael has punting pedigree like the catching Molinas in baseball. He played for Lafayette back in 2017 and then Arizona State from 2018-20.

Turk, who’s 25 years old, was even available for selection back in 2020 when he declared for the NFL draft as a Sun Devil, however, he wasn’t picked nor signed, so he regained two years of eligibility, which he spent at Oklahoma. In fact, back in 2020, he bench-pressed 25 reps at the NFL Combine, which was a modern-era record for punters.

The former Sooner was a two-time first-team All-Big 12 punter in 2021 and 2022 and was also the same in the Pac-12 in 2019 and 2020. Turk has a thunderous leg, and, in 2022, he ranked third in college football in gross punt average (46.8).

The distance on his punts will be there, yet he’ll have to work on the corner accuracy and not out-kick coverage. He specialized in flipping the field, even numerous times from deep in his own territory, including as far back as the backend of the end zone. On several occasions, he booted kicks of 70-plus yards.

He tallied a punt of at least 50 yards punt in all but two games last season for Oklahoma. His kicks have solid hang-time, but a bit of fine-tuning of the accuracy can make Turk a massively important person to watch in training camp, and battle recently signed punter Jake Bailey, formerly of the New England Patriots where he was an All-Pro in 2020.

The main positive for Turk is the massive power, and again, working on the nuances of the punting game like touch and corner-coffin placement are things that he’ll focus on this summer. The Dolphins have a loaded roster, and this could be the toughest season in recent memory for any undrafted rookie to get named to the 53-man team.

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5 takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners performance at the NFL Scouting Combine

Five takeaways from Oklahoma Sooners at the 2023 NFL Scouting combine.

One of the biggest weekends for the football world just came to completion. This weekend served as a massive evaluation tool for determining the future of the next stars of the NFL.

Oklahoma has no shortage of stars in the pro ranks at the moment but has the opportunity for a number of players to hear their names called in April.

Seven Sooners made the trek to Indianapolis to participate in the NFL Scouting Combine.

The Oklahoma Sooners, as a whole, put on a fine display of athleticism as multiple players put up great testing numbers. Social media was set ablaze watching [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag], and [autotag]Jalen Redmond[/autotag] test. With the combine over, these former Sooners will begin preparing for their pro day.

Here are five takeaways about the Oklahoma Sooners from the NFL Scouting Combine.

2023 NFL Combine results for punter Michael Turk

Results for Oklahoma Sooners punter Michael Turk at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine.

Michael Turk had a productive career at Arizona State before joining the Oklahoma Sooners. He took his game to another level after arriving in Norman and is on the verge of getting drafted by the NFL.

Field position has always been an important aspect of football, but in recent seasons, the punting game has taken on a higher priority.

There have been 13 punters selected in the fourth round or better since the NFL draft moved to seven rounds in 1997. Could Michael Turk be the next one?

He’ll land on an NFL roster, and after showing off his athleticism at the NFL draft combine, there’s a good chance he gets to hear his name called in April.

Sooners add Central Michigan transfer punter Luke Elzinga

The Oklahoma Sooners dipped back into the transfer portal, adding Central Michigan punter Luke Elzinga.

As Michael Turk prepares for an NFL future, the Oklahoma Sooners went back to the transfer portal well for their next punter. To replace Turk, who the Sooners added in the portal from Arizona State, Oklahoma’s adding Central Michigan punter Luke Elzinga.

In three seasons with the Chippewas, Elzinga punted the ball 145 times and averaged 43 yards per punt. He was the highest graded punter in the MAC according to Pro Football Focus on 55 attempts in 2022.

He led the MAC in net punt average at 40.1 yards per attempt and hang-time at 3.9 seconds per punt. Elzinga was third in the MAC in punts downed inside the 20 with 25.

Elzinga also threw one pass for 20 yards in 2022 on a fake field goal attempt. That was an element of Michael Turk’s game that showed up in 2022 and was very effective for the Sooners. Elzinga’s ability to throw the ball could provide special teams coordinator Jay Nunez with some intriguing fake field goal and punt options in 2023.

The former All-MAC punter joins a competition that includes Arizona State transfer Josh Plaster and redshirt freshman Brady Braun.

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