Oklahoma Player Makes Mannelly Award Watch List

The three-year starter is the only player from the Big 12 Conference nominated for the long snapper award.

John E. Hoover | Aug 9, 2021

Oklahoma long snapper Kasey Kelleher is among this year’s players selected for the Patrick Mannelly Award preseason watch list.

The Mannelly Award goes to college football’s top long snapper.

Patrick Mannelly, a sixth-round NFL Draft pick from Duke, played 16 years with the Chicago Bears from 1998-2013 and was special teams captain for 11 seasons.

Currently, Kelleher is one of eight players nominated for the award and the only player from the Big 12 Conference.

A fifth-year senior from Peninsula, OH, the 5-foot-10, 235-pound Kelleher is a three-year starter for the Sooners on both placekicks and punts.

The Mannelly Award is one of college football’s newest position trophies. Notre Dame’s John Shannon won the inaugural award in 2019, and Alabama’s Thomas Fletcher took home last year’s award.

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Published Aug 9, 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.