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Report: Oklahoma Will Hire Former San Diego State Assistant to Coach Special Teams

The Sooners ranked No. 127 nationally in special teams efficiency last season, so Brent Venables is bringing in an analyst whose unit ranked in the top 10 three straight years.
John E. Hoover|
Report: Oklahoma Will Hire Former San Diego State Assistant to Coach Special Teams
Report: Oklahoma Will Hire Former San Diego State Assistant to Coach Special Teams

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Oklahoma Sooners

It seems Oklahoma coach Brent Venables has identified his new special teams czar.

According to a report Thursday night from Sooners Illustrated’s Collin Kennedy, OU is expected to hire former San Diego State special teams coordinator Doug Deakin as special teams analyst.

Citing unnamed sources, Kennedy and 247 Sports national reporter Matt Zenitz reported that Deakin will fill the position vacated when Jay Nunez left to take a job at Alabama.

Deakin has a 17-year association with the Aztecs, dating back to his days as a walk-on who was voted team captain as a senior in 2010.

More recently, he was SDSU’s special teams coordinator for six seasons. According to his most recent bio on the SDSU athletics website, the Aztecs were ranked in the top 10 of ESPN’s FBS special teams efficiency three years in a row, including the 2022 season when they ranked No. 2 in the nation with a 72.2 efficiency rating. Last season, the Aztecs ranked No. 9 nationally in overall special teams efficiency.

At OU, Deakin inherits a special teams unit that ranked No. 127 nationally last season, according to ESPN.

The analyst position is allowed to coach players at practice, but can’t coach them on game days. That means each special teams unit was coached by individual position coaches on game days after working with the analyst all week.

The Sooners bring back both their punter and kicker in 2024, although both positions are considered open competitions.

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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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