Now With a Full-Time Coach, Oklahoma Expects Better Special Teams Play

The Sooners have nowhere to go but up on special teams, and Brent Venables and specialist guru Doug Deakin have begun to identify some of the players who can make it happen.

Oklahoma coach Doug Deakin (left) / John E. Hoover / Sooners on SI

NORMAN — With preseason training camp in the rear-view mirror, Oklahoma is taking stock in real improvements that were made on special teams in 2024.

After all, head coach Brent Venables has talked often about the need to be more efficient in close games, in road games, in specific on-field situations.

And nowhere can OU be more efficient than special teams.

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

One major area the Sooners are better this year: coaching.

That’s not a knock on former special teams analyst Jay Nunez. It’s just that now, under a significant adjustment to NCAA rules, analysts can actually coach the players — on the practice field as well as on game days.

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Nunez brought a lot of good ideas and occasional daring to the Sooners’ special teams in Venables’ first two seasons, but previously, the analysts’ role was limited to meeting with the coaching staff, going over alignments and assignments and personnel, overseeing the operation in practice, and then implementing a game plan.

Under the new rules, new hire Doug Deakin — Nunez moved on to Alabama — can actually coach the players.

“That part has changed a lot,” Venables said Tuesday night after practice. “So the depth of your support staff, the ability to coach — and we've got guys that have either been coaches before that weren't able to, or they're former players that can really bring a lot to individualize, be more specific fundamentally, technique, get a little bit more on-the-field eyes and correction and coaching. 

“Everybody's got the same rules, so everybody should benefit from that.”

Not everybody has massive improvements that need to be made across the board, though, like Oklahoma does.

That’s where Deakin has brought his expertise coaching special teams at San Diego State, where the Aztecs routinely ranked among the nation’s most efficient special teams groups.

“Doug's incredibly passionate, high energy, really smart, great teacher, inspires and motivates as good as any coach that I've been around,” Venables said. “The players have tremendous respect for him and he's just a really effective communicator. So I expect us to improve from where we were.”

In 2023, every SEC team but Vanderbilt kicked the football better than Oklahoma.

Venables indicated Tuesday that incumbent placekicker Zach Schmit and transfer Tyler Keltner have been the most consistent in camp. Deakin has given chances to freshman Liam Evans and senior Josh Plaster, but as the Aug. 30 season opener with Temple draws closer, it’s important for someone to create separation — and if it’s two, then the competition will continue.

“That’ll go through the end of this week and then we’ll make a decision,” Venables said. “Really feel like we would need both guys potentially this season.”

He also said returning starter and senior Luke Elzinga has “done a great job as a punter” after averaging a career-best 45.1 yards per kick last year, but also said sophomore Ashton Logan has had a good camp.

One area the Sooners should be better is on kickoffs and punt returns. There’s game-breaking talent there, but Jalil Farooq averaged just 22.2 yards on kickoffs and Gavin Freeman averaged just 6.8 yards on punts. Freeman lost two fumbles, and Farooq lost one. 

Job one is catch the football. Job two is don’t fumble it. Job three is make something happen. Oklahoma wasn’t good at any of it in 2023.

Deakin’s coaching should shore up some of that as he and Venables sort through candidates like Farooq, Peyton Bowen, Billy Bowman and Brenen Thompson. Venables also said two guys projected to start at running back — Gavin Sawchuk and Jovantae Barnes — have gotten reps.

“Those are the guys who’ve worked some of the returns,” he said.

The talent is there. Now, the coaching is, too.

“I think when you talk about a coordinator,” Venables said, “somebody that has an expertise, and he has a vision for exactly what he wants it to look like, when he can be a part of that development on the field as well as off the field, it gives you a chance to really make some improvement in the areas that you need to. But that's been a lot of fun.”