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Oklahoma 2024 Report Cards: Special Teams Were Better, but Lacked Consistency

The Sooners saw improvements across the board, but also experienced a handful of costly lows throughout the season.

John E. Hoover

Bryan Terry/The Oklahoman/USA Today Sports
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With the addition of career special teams guru Doug Deakin and the change of NCAA rules that allows analysts to actually coach their players, Oklahoma’s special teams units got better in 2024.

But overall, the Sooners still fell short in numerous areas in 2024.

Mistakes were frequent, although almost nothing catastrophic happened. Dropped punts were prominent early. Only one player generated any big plays. Consistency was lacking. From kickoff returns to field goals to punts and every unit in between, Oklahoma’s special teams this season were occassionally good, but also occasionally erratic.

2024 Oklahoma Report Cards: Special Teams

* Dec. 30: Special teams
* Dec. 31: Defensive tackle
* Jan. 1: Running back
* Jan. 2: Defensive end
* Jan. 3: Offensive line
* Jan. 4: Linebacker
* Jan. 5: Tight end
* Jan. 6: Cornerback
* Jan. 7: Wide receiver
* Jan. 8: Safety
* Jan. 9: Quarterback
* Jan. 10: Coaches

Oklahoma currently ranks 36th in the nation and seventh in the SEC in overall special teams efficiency, according to ESPN’s FPI analytics. That’s a drastic improvement over 2023 under analyst Jay Nunez, when OU special teams ranked 127th in the country and last in the Big 12.

Still, even with a hands-on coach this season, Oklahoma was largely pedestrian on special teams units: zero blocked punts and zero blocked field goals, zero punt returns for touchdowns and zero kickoff returns for touchdowns.

The longest kickoff return was just 31 yards (by Sam Franklin), and the longest punt return was just 24 yards (by Peyton Bowen). As a team, OU ranked 68th in the nation in punt returns (7.96-yard average) and 88th in kickoff returns (18.92).

The only real game-changing type of play came on a 21-yard scoop-and-score by Jaren Kanak late in what became a 51-3 blowout against Temple. That fumble was forced by Lewis Carter, who also pounced on a muffed punt against Houston to produce an immediate touchdown pass in a 16-14 OU win. Carter was a special teams demon early.

2024-25 Oklahoma Sooners Transfer Portal Tracker

Those were pretty much the high points of the season.

Both Bowen and Billy Bowman dropped multiple punt returns (they each had one but were able to recover in the narrow win over Houston), and a muffed punt by Bowen led to Missouri's first points in what turned into the most disappointing loss of the season.

Arguably the team’s most consistent player, punter Luke Elzinga, was very good again this season, ranking 16th in the nation and sixth in the SEC with a 44.8-yard average — and frequently flipping the field to bail out a disastrous offensive possession. But even Elzinga had his low points in 2024, particularly the 11-yard punt in the Armed Forces Bowl against Navy.

Navy also capitalized on a missed field goal by Zach Schmit in the bowl game, scoring the go-ahead touchdown after just his second miss of the season — a 52-yarder in the fourth quarter that ultimately could have provided the razor-thin difference between a winning season (7-6) and a losing season (6-7).

After losing his starting job to transfer Tyler Keltner to open the season, Schmit — a career 67 percent kicker — figured out a few things as he got his job back at midseason and connected on 9-of-11 field goal attempts, including a career-long 56-yard bomb at the end of the half at Missouri. Keltner finished 7-of-9 for the season.

Give Deakin credit for having the ingenuity (and Brent Venables the bravado) to turn Elzinga loose as a passer. He completed all three of his throws on fake punt attempts this season for 66 yards and three first downs, and all three plays were different and timely.

Oklahoma’s coverage teams ranged from mostly solid to not quite good enough this season as well, allowing only 4.86 yards per punt return (26th in the nation; credit Elzinga’s hang time for a large part of that as OU ranked 12th nationally in net punting), but they also gave up 24.44 yards on kickoff returns (121st nationally), an average that was skewed by Aaron Anderson’s backbreaking 100-yard touchdown return in the season finale at LSU.

Sooners On SI Grade: C+

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John E. Hoover
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.

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