Oklahoma Kicker Tate Sandell Lands Massive Honor from SEC

Oklahoma kicker Tate Sandell has already done lots of things no other OU kicker has. Might as well make it one more.

Sandell was named SEC Special Teams Player of the Year, the conference office announced Wednesday as the league revealed its 2025 season superlatives.

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year and Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell was selected as SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Tennessee’s Braylon Staley was tabbed SEC Freshman of the Year; Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss was voted SEC Newcomer of the Year; Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor and Texas A&M’s Trey Zuhn III were named winners of the Jacobs Blocking Trophy; and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea was voted SEC Coach of the Year. It was previously announced that Vanderbilt’s Nick Rinaldi was selected as the SEC Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Selections were made by the league’s head coaches, who were not permitted to vote for their own players.

Sandell is the Sooners' first SEC individual award winner and the program’s first conference special teams player of the year since kicker Austin Seibert won the Big 12 award in 2018.

SEC Special Teams Player of the Year 🏆 | @TateSandell1

» https://t.co/m84QyEh1EE | #BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/L2gH4ltGQ0
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) December 10, 2025

Sandell was named first-team All-SEC on Tuesday and is one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award, which will be given out on Friday night.

Sandell is 23 -of-24 on field goals this season, and has made 23 in a row, setting a school and single-season SEC record. He was a three-time SEC Special Teams Player of the Week.

Sandell has been more than just accurate. He's also shown unusual power and has been at his best in clutch situations.

At South Carolina, Sandell buried a 55-yard field goal in the third quarter to give OU a 17-7 lead. He made 51- and 40-yard kicks just before halftime at Tennessee, then buried a 55-yarder early in the fourth quarter to give OU a 26-17 lead. He hammered a 52-yard bomb in the third quarter to give the Sooners a 20-14 lead at Alabama, then added a 24-yard chip shot in the fourth quarter to put OU in front 23-21. His 45-yard field goal early in the third quarter put Missouri in a 17-6 hole.

With the Oklahoma offense beginning to bog down as the season progressed, Sandell's value was presented early in games as well as he staked the Sooners to a 3-0 lead and set the tone with first-quarter field goals against Auburn, Texas, Alabama and LSU.

He's 7-for-7 on field goals of 50 yards or more (only one other player has made five) and 10-for-10 on field goals of 45 yards or more. His four kicks of at least 55 yards are a school career record and the most in FBS this season. He leads the SEC and ranks second nationally in success rate (96 percent), and 32-of-32 on PAT kicks.

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A a redshirt junior from Port Neches, TX, Sandell is one of just two kickers nationally since at least 1995 to make at least seven field goals of 50-plus yards without a miss. He has made an OU career-record four field goals of 55-plus yards and is one of two FBS kickers in at least the last 30 years with four makes of 55-plus yards in a season (the only one to do it in a five-game stretch).

Sandell has made a nation-leading and OU-single-season-record 15 field goals of 40-plus yards (the previous program record was nine). He tied a school-single-game record at Tennessee with his four field goals (55, 51, 40, 55 yards) and tied the Neyland Stadium record for longest field goal (55 yards; twice). He became the first FBS kicker since 2021 to make three 50-plus-yard field goals in a game (tied the FBS record) and the first FBS kicker since 2011 to make two 55-plus-yard field goals in a road game.

Sandell also leads the country with his average-make distance of 41.8 yards (min. 15 conversions).

In his first year at Oklahoma after transferring from UTSA last summer, Sandell has scored 101 of the team’s 317 points (32 percent) this season. He has made at least one field goal in each of the last 11 games and has made at least three field goals in four of the last six contests. He was responsible for 26 of OU’s 56 points (46 percent) in November road wins over Tennessee and Alabama, and for 36 of the Sooners’ 90 points over their four November victories.

The No. 8 Sooners (10-2, 6-2 SEC) will host No. 9 Alabama (10-3, 7-1 SEC) in the College Football Playoff First Round on Friday, Dec. 19, at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on ABC and ESPN.

OU Media Relations contributed to this report.