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Oklahoma Punter Lands on Guy Watch List

The Sooners needed to be better on directional punts, and special teams coach Jay Nunez feels they got a good one in Luke Elzinga.

John E. Hoover

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Oklahoma is already on the path to replacing its All-Big 12 punter.

Senior Luke Elzinga, a transfer from Central Michigan, was included on the Ray Guy Award watch list this week. The award goes to the best punter in college football.

OU must replace all-star Michael Turk, a two-year starter and Guy Award candidate during both of his record-setting seasons in Norman.

The Sooners got that process started when Elzinga arrived in January.

In three seasons as the Chippewas’ punter, Elzinga made first-team All-MAC twice and third-team once. He averaged 42.4 yards per punt on 145 career kicks. Coaches have said Elzinga’s leg might not be as powerful as Turk, but expect the Sooners to be better this season on pinning opponents at their own goal line.

“We weren’t a great pooch punt team,” said special teams analyst Jay Nunez. “We were a highly-rated net punt team and punt coverage, did a lot of great things, but hit 10 touchbacks and just put our defense in spots that were not as good as it should have been. And Luke’s excellent at that. He’s kind of a pooch punt specialist.”

In his three seasons as the starter, Elzinga had just 10 touchbacks. The Grand Rapids, MI, native dropped 22 punts inside the opponents’ 20-yard line last year alone. 

Elzinga is the third Sooner to land on a preseason watch list for the College Football Awards Association, joining junior linebacker Danny Stutsman on the Bronco Nagurski Award watch list as the nation's top defensive player and senior quarterback Dillon Gabriel on the Maxwell Award watch list as the nation's top overall player.

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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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