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Oklahoma Kicker Enters Transfer Portal

The Sooners' reserve kicker in 2023 was one of three kickers on the roster, but now the competition has intensified for 2024.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Kicker Enters Transfer Portal
Oklahoma Kicker Enters Transfer Portal

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Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma’s kicker position gained just a little bit of clarity on Friday.

Redi Mustafaraj, academically a fourth-year junior from Atoka, OK, entered the transfer portal as a graduate student.

Mustafaraj came to OU from Northeastern A&M (OK) but couldn’t crack the lineup in his one year in Norman.

Zach Schmit won the job in 2022 and maintained it in 2023 despite occasional accuracy issues on clutch field goals.

Schmit’s backup both seasons was freshman Gavin Marshall, whom coach Brent Venables said last season sustained an injury that kept him from competing for the job in practice under special teams analyst Jay Nunez.

Now in 2024, the competition could be more intense than ever as Schmit is back after two seasons as the starter, and Marshall is presumably healthy.

OU has also added two kickers for 2024: true freshman Liam Evans is one of the top high school kicking prospects in the nation, according to Kohl’s Kicking Camp rankings, and comes to OU from Moore; and grad transfer Tyler Keltner arrives after a year at Florida State and four years at East Tennessee State.

Mustafaraj writes that he has two years of college football eligibility remaining. As a graduate transfer, he is immediately eligible to play next season.

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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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