Spring Review: Under Jay Nunez, Oklahoma's Special Teams Could Be Special Again
With spring practice in the past and the NCAA Transfer Portal spring window now closed, it’s the ideal time to assess the Oklahoma roster heading into summer.
AllSooners has compiled a 10-part series, position by position, reviewing the Sooners’ spring and where that position goes from here.
Special Teams
Oklahoma’s special teams promised to be better in Brent Venables’ first season back in Norman, and they were.
Given Lincoln Riley’s tendency to sit on field position, the Sooners couldn’t have been much worse, at least in the return game.
Venables brought with him a more fearless attitude toward runbacks, more aggressive and more trusting, and the evidence played out on Saturdays last fall.
Oklahoma’s special teams became so bad that the last media question Riley got as OU’s head coach was whether he would hire a special teams coach.
“No,” was his answer.
But in addition to the new attitude, that’s exactly what Venables did — hire a coach dedicated solely to special teams. And by all accounts, Jay Nunez’ first season at the helm of Sooner specials was a positive.
Now he’s building on Year Two.
“It’s been great,” Nunez said in April. “We had a lot of guys coming back who have done it and been a part.”
For More Spring Reviews
- Offensive Line Needs Numbers and Some Good Luck
- LBs Performed Well, But It's Clear More Depth is Needed
- RBs Had Some Setbacks, Some Growth
- Defensive Line Could Now be a Strength
- Depth at Safety Could Be a Point of Strength
- Wide Receiver Could be a Make or Break Position
- Corners Possess Combination of Experience and Youth
- Tight Ends Led by Familiar Face
Start at kicker, where Zach Schmit is back after an up and down season. Schmit made 12-of-18 field goals last year, with a handful of timely misses in important situations of four games the Sooners lost by — what else? — a field goal.
“On paper, you say, ‘Oh my gosh, Zach Schmit’s not very good; we were 67 percent,’ ” Nunez said. “But you go back and watch the film, you know, you had a 55-yard that was two feet to the left. You had a 47-yard against West Virginia in a monsoon off the upright. Kansas was 53, one yard short."
There were hints in the spring game and in media interviews during the spring that Schmit was striking the ball better in spring practice, but that would obviously have to carry over into the season.
“OK, just eliminate late movement in the ball,” Nunez said. “Just hitting up cleaner, those 50-yarders that don’t kind of wobble late was his thing to focus on.”
A clear expression of Venables’ aggressiveness on special teams, Schmit also was the recipient of two field goal fakes — including a touchdown run at Iowa State — as well as one that didn’t work and was costly at Texas Tech.
Although it’s Venables who calls them on gameday, it’s Nunez who comes up with those sneaks and reps them in practice. OU opens practice almost every day with a call to special teams. So far, Venables and Nunez have made a good pairing.
Jay Nunez
John E. Hoover / AllSooners
But if Schmit is going to keep his job, it won’t be because he scores touchdowns.
Redshirt freshman Gavin Marshall is the main competition, and he and Schmit will have to be on point to keep fifth-year senior and former Arizona State transfer Josh Plaster (who was put on scholarship this spring) from getting a chance.
It’s impossible to simulate fourth-quarter game day pressure in practice. But Nunez and the coaching staff tries.
“As far as, ‘These are the situations we need to hit, these are the types of kicks we need to hit in practice to get confidence with it,’ “ Nunez said. “Then on game day, Coach V makes that decision with what we’ve done, where we’re at, what the situation of where the game is, how has the offense, defense done? Decides in that situation, what’s the best situation for us.”
Nunez has a new punter this year, too, and there’s been every indication through spring and early in summer that Luke Elzinga is the one to replace Michael Turk.
In four years at Central Michigan, the Grand Rapids, MI, native was a three-time first-team All-MAC honoree. He averaged 43.2, 41.3 and 42.2 yards per punt in his three seasons as the starter.
“It’s no qualm: We weren’t a great pooch punt team,” Nunez said. “We were a highly rated net punt team and punt coverage, did a lot of great things, but hit 10 touchbacks and just put our defense in spots that were not as good as it should have been. And Luke’s excellent at that. He’s kind of a pooch punt specialist.”
Every football fan knows with both kicks and punts, nothing happens without a good snap. The Sooners seem to be in good shape there after losing four-year starter Kasey Kelleher.
“Ben Anderson is the guy who redshirted last year as a snapper,” Nunez said, “and just his mindset, he looks like an old soul. You watch him, and you’d think he’s like a fifth-year senior, just how he operates, and how he handles himself, how he’s taking care of his body. He’s a rock star as far as that goes, so feel really good.”
Oklahoma will almost always have an advantage in the return game because of the type of explosive athlete the Sooners recruit. But responding to the rules implemented to dumb down special teams runbacks, Riley began to let those advantages slip away and became risk-averse, possibly because of the confidence he has in his scheme and his quarterback.
Last year OU averaged 13.2 yards on punt returns and 21.4 on kickoff returns. In 2021, the Sooners' respective averages were 5.8 and 20.3.
With Venables, the candidates for punt return and kickoff return are plentiful.
“We’ve got a plethora of guys repping,” Nunez said of the punt runbacks. “Probably got about five guys that we’re chewing through. Ultimately, as a punt returner, it’s a guy who’s not going to make a mistake. You gotta be a great decision-maker. We gotta get the ball back. You can’t have roll yards. There’s all the essentials. Then you try to get the most explosive player that can do all that. So we’re chewing through that right now. But have about six guys we feel good about.”
Marvin Mims did it last year and averaged 16 yards per return, but he’s in the NFL now. The job is wide open.
On kickoffs, Jalil Farooq is tested, averaging 22 yards on a dozen runbacks last year. But expect to see Billy Bowman, Peyton Bowen, LV Bunkley-Shelton, Brenen Thompson, Chapman McKown, Kalib Hicks, Daylan Smothers, Gavin Sawchuk, Gentry Williams and others get a look, some at both jobs.
“Kick returner’s easier because there’s not as much decision-making going on,” Nunez said. “You’re catching that thing, you’re not getting hit as soon as you touch the ball, at times. But between Jalil with experience and Billy, both those guys did some really good things last year. Then some of the new guys, we probably have about four or five guys, Peyton Bowen, just explosive athletes in the mix. And excited to see how that plays out.”
As an analyst, Nunez has many restrictions on what he can and can’t do. For example, he said Bill Bedenbaugh works with the placekicking group in practice and on game days, Joe Jon Finley does the punt team, DeMarco Murray does punt return, Brandon Hall has kickoffs, and so on.
Nunez scouts and schemes and leads the special teams meetings, but by rule, he’s prohibited from on-field coaching players (the NCAA has a 10-coach limit for Division I football, and Venables has split it up into five on offense and five on defense, with a special teams analyst).
“Full-time coaches have done a really good job guiding those guys, giving them the things they need to work on, and their tools and fundamentals,” Nunez said.
“There’s frustrations at times. You’re seeing something that’s not playing out, exactly how it was planned. But when you’re on the field, your hands were tied, you’re back, you can’t get in the middle to fix things. You’re kind of biting your tongue, and writing all kinds of notes. OK, we’ll go back in after practice, and OK, this is what went wrong. This is what we’ve got to do to fix it. But those guys are great coaches. They’re doing their thing. I’m just a tool and a vessel to assist them.”
Nunez played center at Pittsburg State in Kansas, then broke into coaching as a volunteer assistant under Jerry Kill at Minnesota.
“He coached the specialists and special teams, so I was just with him at all times of the day and just kind of soaked it up as a sponge,” Nunez said. “Met a lot of people like the Kohl’s kicking guys, did an internship with the Minnesota Vikings and was with those specialists. Just kind of the growing.
“Rule of 10,000: have never kicked a football but have watched about 10,000 reps of it. Then from there went to Southern Illinois to Eastern Michigan. My role here’s different, obviously, as an analyst. Being off the field, not coaching players, but when I can appropriately, helping the coaches with here’s what I’m seeing, giving them tools when I can. That’s kind of my journey in a nutshell.”
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