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Oklahoma Punter Michael Turk Receives Big 12 Award

The Sooners senior threw his first career touchdown pass and also tested the Iowa State offense with repeated big punts.

John E. Hoover

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NORMAN — After throwing his first career touchdown pass and helping Oklahoma to a 27-13 win at Iowa State, Sooners senior Michael Turk has been named Big 12 co-special teams player of the week.

Turk averaged 49.3 yards on his six punts and became OU’s first full-time punter since 1970 to throw a touchdown pass in the victory over the Cyclones.

The TD was technically a pass, although he simply flipped the football forward from his holder position to kicker Zach Schmit, who ran it in on a fake field goal for a 2-yard touchdown to give OU a 10-3 lead.

As a punter, the senior saved the game in the fourth quarter, booming 61- and 60-yarders to flip the field with the Sooners clinging to a seven-point lead. The 61-yarder came from OU’s 8-yard line, and the 60-yarder was downed at the ISU 2-yard line. OU's defense registered interceptions on each of Iowa State’s next two possessions.

Turk leads the Big 12 and ranks sixth nationally with his 45.8-yard punt average this season. He’s the first Sooner other than quarterback Dillon Gabriel to receive one of the Big 12’s weekly honors. Gabriel has been named newcomer of the week twice.

Baylor’s Gabe Hall (defensive) and Richard Reese (newcomer) and K-State’s Will Howard (offensive) and Ty Zentner (co-special teams) also won this week’s Big 12 awards.

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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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