When a friend text messaged me Tuesday telling me OU has four kickers on scholarship and another kicker promised one, my first reaction was disbelief.
It seemed like some sort of joke. After all, how could a team with four, and soon to be five, scholarship kickers not be able to find a consistent one?
After checking several media sources, I confirmed coach Bob Stoops provided the zinger information himself in his weekly Tuesday press conference, much to my surprise.
The Sooners have kickers junior Jimmy Stevens, sophomore Patrick O’Hara and redshirt freshman Bryce Easley and sophomore punter Tress Way currently on scholarship with freshman kicker Michael Hunnicutt promised one after this semester.
Out of 85 scholarships, OU has five of them tied up in kickers, two of which haven’t even attempted a kick in their careers (Easley and Hunnicutt).
Maybe the situation would be OK if the Sooners’ kicking game was on point; however, it has been well-documented that this hasn’t been the case in quite some time, namely since Garrett Hartley left for the NFL.
Kicking was a concern for OU before the season, but through the first half it didn’t show up as a huge problem. After Stevens missed a 30-yard field goal in the loss against Missouri, though, it re-opened the conversation anout the kicking struggles.
On top of the missed field goal, O’Hara’s kickoffs often came up short in the game, even when the wind was at his back, and led to Missouri running the opening kickoff back for a touchdown.
It has to be disheartening to Sooners and their fans — and encouraging to their opponents — to know that scoring is not as sure a thing as it should be inside the 30-yard line.
Stoops admitted the kicking situation sometimes makes him more likely to go for it on fourth down in situations that normally would warrant a field goal, which, if the team doesn’t get a first down, basically amounts to a missed field goal anyway.
Five scholarship kickers, and yet Stoops said Stevens will remain the field goal kicker just because no one else is good enough to challenge for the spot.
Five scholarship kickers, and Stoops still said his staff will be scouting for a junior college transfer kicker who would receive a scholarship.
Imagine the talent that could potentially be brought to OU if two or three of those scholarships weren’t used for kickers who don’t and might not ever play.
Five is already too many; I don’t suppose that bringing in a sixth on scholarship would be a very popular or smart decision. That is, unless that kicker happens to be the one for the job.
Even then, that would mean five other kickers on scholarship with only one in use and one as a punter.
But I guess in the grand scheme of things, that’s the lesser of two evils at this point.
— Aaron Colen, journalism senior
OU kicking woes
» In 2009, only Akron, Indiana, Rutgers and OU missed 10 or more field goals and failed to convert from 50 yards or beyond
» Missed field goals were key reasons for OU’s 2009 losses to Texas and Nebraska
Big 12 kicking comparison
» Nebraska senior Alex Henery
9-9 FG, long 52, 35-35 PAT
» OSU senior Dan Bailey
15-15 FG, long 52, 41-41 PAT
» Missouri junior Grant Ressel
13-14 FG, long 50, 26-28 PAT
» Baylor freshman Aaron Jones
16-20 FG, long 50, 31-31 PAT
» Texas junior Justin Tucker
13-16 FG, long 51, 16-16 PAT
» OU junior Jimmy Stevens
4-6 FG, long 42, 21-21 PAT
*2010 season stats
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JosephT 1 year, 7 months ago
Take a look at Bryce Easley's high school stats at Norman North. Why hasn't that success translated to the college level? And why wouldn't Stoops and the OU coaching staff figure that out before offering a scholarship?