The battle to be the top placekicker for TU highlights this season’s preseason practices at Special Teams, and it could be the difference between winning and losing many games.
With established successful kicker Redford Jones having graduated, the competition is looking like it will come down to walk-ons Nathan Walker and John Parker Romo. This position is the headliner of all of the Special Teams positions for Tulsa.
Walker, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound senior from Kingwood, Texas, is a returning player who is finally getting his chance. He got the first opportunities in the Spring Game and attempted the only field goal of the game, a 37-yarder that he successfully made. He also made both of his extra point attempts.
“I haven’t nailed it down as a starter,” said Tulsa head coach Philip Montgomery. “Nate’s been around here for a while. Nate was probably the most consistent as we went through spring. That job will still be kind of rolling through the summer and we’ll nail that down. Nate’s done an outstanding job for us and we have a lot of confidence in him.”
Romo, a 5-11, 160-pound sophomore transfer from Central Arkansas, played in high school at Peachtree, Georgia. He could be playing against his former team in the season opener, as the Golden Hurricane hosts the Central Arkansas Bears on Sept. 1.
Romo is a former scholarship player for Central Arkansas who has a good chance to handle the kickoffs like he did in 2016 for UCA. He had seven touchbacks in 44 kickoffs while kicking the majority of kickoffs for the Bears in 2016. He also missed his only field goal attempt.
“Romo has a really, really explosive leg. The ball just explodes off his foot,” Montgomery said of Romo, who made both of his extra points in the Spring Game. “He’s got to be more consistent about what he does, but he is dynamic, for sure.”
The only other kicker to play in the spring game was returning junior Tristan Lacey, a 5-11, 176-pound walk-on from Crescent, Oklahoma. He made both of his extra points in the Spring Game.
Whoever the kicker is, it will be tough to replace Jones, who, like the current kickers, started off as a walk-on at TU. Having earned a scholarship, Jones finished up a fine career by making 12 of 16 field goals in 2017, with his longest coming from 51 yards, and he made 44 of 45 extra points, as well as handling all of the kickoff duties.
As for who will be the punter, there really is no competition, as scholarship returnee Thomas Bennett, a 6-3, 180-pound junior, returns. In his first year as TU’s punter in 2017, Bennett averaged 42.3 yards on 61 punts. He is a transfer from Baylor and went to high school in Carlsbad, California.
“Thomas did a nice job for us. I think he’ll get even more consistent as he continues to grow and mature,” said Montgomery. “When he hits it, the ball pops off of his foot. He can really throw it up in the air. That’s got to be such a dynamic weapon for us in our kicking game to be able to pin guys back. I think he’s done an outstanding job and will continue to do that.”
The deep snapping duties fall again to TU legacy Adam Higuera, who like his brother Rey Higuera before him, did an outstanding job handling the deep snapping duties. Rey had the job from 2012-2015.
Adam Higuera, a 6-1, 240-pound sophomore from Gilbert, Arizona, was a priority recruit for Montgomery out of high school, as he was one of the top deep snappers coming out of high school in the 2017 class.
Not only did Higuera perform the duties well, but he had the thrill of scoring a touchdown in his first college game, recovering a muffed punt in the end zone at Oklahoma State for the first touchdown of the season. He then got the honor of snapping on the successful extra point that followed.
“Adam coming in as a freshman really handled our snapping duties exceptionally well across the board, especially for a true freshman,” Montgomery said. “What surprises you is how is he going to handle situations. You play in big venues or you play in rain, some things that can a really affect a young man, and he handles all of those.”
The area that needs the greatest improvement is in punt returning, where TU set a school record last season for least yards returned since records first started being kept in 1941.
Tulsa only had four return yards in 2017, well eclipsing the previous low in 2011 where the lead returner, J.D. Ratliff, only had 36 yards on nine returns.
The surprising thing about Tulsa’s lack of return yards in 2017 was that Keidrien Wadley returned 16 punts for 163 yards and a 10.2 yard average in 2016 before relinquishing the duties midway through the season due to being injured. Jarion Anderson, who was academically ineligible in 2017, then took over for Wadley in 2016 and returned seven punts for 22 yards.
Last season, as the primary punt returner in his nine games, Wadley returned one punt for zero yards, mostly fair catching all of the punts. Ryan McDaniel also had one return for zero yards.
The only player with any return yards for Tulsa was its career rushing leader, D’Angelo Brewer, who returned one punt for four yards in his one game returning punts. Those yards represented all of the punt return yards for the season.
The only positive thing about Tulsa’s punt returns is that the Golden Hurricane wasn’t coughing the ball up. No lost fumbles were recorded in 2017.
“We’ve got to do a better job about creating a few lanes but also about being smart about when we want to take that chance or not,” Montgomery said. “The good and bad of it all is we’re getting the ball back. We don’t want mistakes. Obviously, we’d like to steal some yards in there and be a little more dynamic back there.
“Keidrien was banged up quite a bit last year. The first year he did it, and then he broke his finger. Jarion finished up two years ago and did some good things. We’ve got some guys that we can throw back there that can handle those duties for us.”
For the season, Tulsa had fair catches on 19 of 46 punts, compared with nine for its opponents. Two of the opponents' punts were touchbacks, three were returned, and Tulsa's returners let 22 bounce. On the other hand, Tulsa’s opponents returned 24 punts for 204 yards, including a 72-yarder. One advantage Tulsa had was in punting average, as opponents only averaged 38 yards per punt.
“I think a lot of it is some of the punters we face,” Montgomery said of the lack of return yards. “People have gotten so good in the punting game that they can pretty well nail it down where they want it to be, with all the different formations and things that they do, it makes it pretty difficult to have a guy that can be dynamic.
“The most important thing is to field it and hold on to it. Whatever we get on top of that is just going to be icing on the cake.”
On kickoff returns, true freshman Keylon Stokes showed some explosiveness with 527 yards, averaging 20.3 yards per return to lead the Golden Hurricane. It is unknown if Stokes, who likely will see a dramatic increase in playing time at receiver, will again return kicks.
Also adding uncertainty to the kickoff return game is the new rule that has players being able to fair catch a kickoff inside the 25-yard-line and then that is ruled as a touchback, where the ball comes out to the 25-yard-line.
“We’ve got a couple of different guys we’re going to look at back there. With the new rule change, we’re going to have to see how people are going to play the new kickoff,” Montgomery explained. “It’s going to add a different dimension to what we do and how we do it, so we’ll just have to see what the right scenario is for us.”
Regardless of any rule changes, Tulsa needs strong special teams play in 2018 in order to reverse the disappointing results of 2017.
