'Funny' Oklahoma Kicker Gabe Brkic Named Lou Groza Award Star of the Week

After tying the NCAA FBS record with three 50-yard kicks, Brkic had his coach "in tears" with his quirky and entertaining postgame press conference.

John E. Hoover | Sep 7, 2021

The awards keep rolling in for Oklahoma kicker Gabe Brkic after his stunning season-opening performance against Tulane on Saturday.

Brkic tied a school record with four field goals, and tied an NCAA record with three field goals of at least 50 yards. He buried kicks of 51, 55 and 56 yards and also hit a 26-yarder, and on Tuesday was one of four FBS kickers honored by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission as a Lou Groza Award "Star of the Week."

On Monday he was named Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week.

The 56-yard bomb by the two-time Lou Groza Award semifinalist is the school’s longest field goal since 1977. He also converted four PATs in the Sooners' 40-35 win over the Green Wave.

Notre Dame’s Jonathan Doerer, UNLV’s Daniel Gutierrez and Alabama’s Will Reichard were the others honored along with Brkic.

And yet, Brkic's postgame performance might have been even better as he showcased his quirky, unique personality with an entertaining postgame press conference.

Both the kicking and the camera time impressed OU coach Lincoln Riley.

"Yeah, he's funny," Riley said. "Coach (Bob) Stoops called me last night, we were talking, and he and Carol had watched Brkic's interview. I hadn't seen that. So he texted it to me, I watched it last night and I was in tears.

"Oh, my favorite thing is how he knows that we're gonna kick a field goal because he looks at me and I'm pissed, and he knows. It cracked me up. But he is, he's a funny guy. He's what you saw in the interview: doesn't take anything too serious, which, I think he's learned to make that an advantage in his game.

"And he's a lot of fun to have around when it's fourth down on around the 35-yard line."

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Published Sep 7, 2021

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.