Transfer Talk: What Oklahoma is Getting in Kicker Tyler Keltner
New kicker Tyler Keltner came to Oklahoma to see what he can do kicking for a college football blue blood in a big-time atmosphere.
Jay Sandos, the play-by-play announcer who called Keltner’s games for four years at East Tennessee State, is confident Keltner will experience success at OU.
“If he gets a chance in the opening game to kick one or two and they go through the uprights, then I would assume he’ll have no issues,” Sandos said. “If it’s the final moments of the Red River Shootout, I think he’ll be fine.”
That’s exactly what Sooner Nation wants to hear after two years of shaky field goal kicking. Keltner arrives this spring from Florida State as a graduate transfer from the NCAA Transfer Portal. The native of Tallahassee, FL, started four years on the FCS level at East Tennessee State, then spent last year as a backup for his hometown Seminoles.
The kicking competition at Oklahoma starts with incumbent Zach Schmit, who has made 27-of-39 field goals (69.2 percent) during his two seasons as the Sooners’ starter. Backup Gavin Marshall has only kicked in a reserve role. From there, Liam Evans comes in as a true freshman with impressive high school credentials.
Read More Transfer Talk:
In four years as the Buccaneers’ starting kicker, Keltner was 56-of-74 on field goals (75.7 percent) and 131-of-131 on PATs (both school records) for 299 points, which ranks second in program history. He also own a program 54-yard field goal. His one extra point at FSU last year put him over the 300-point milestone.
According to official NCAA statistics, Keltner in 2022 was 17-of-23 on field goals and ranked fifth in the Football Championship Subdivision at 1.55 field goals per game. He was 18-of-23 in 2021, 7-of-10 in in 2020, and 14-of-18 in 2019.
“He did about all he could do at ETSU in four years,” Sandos told AllSooners.
Keltner hit just 2-of-7 from beyond 50 yards, but that included a school-record 54-yarder. He was also 17-of-24 in the 40-49-yard range (71 percent), and made 37-of-43 from inside 40 yards (86 percent).
Tyler Keltner
Brian Miller/Democrat-Tallahassee
In his two years as the OU starter, Schmit is 0-for-3 from beyond 50, 10-of-14 from 40-49 (69 percent) and 18-of-23 from inside 40 (78 percent).
In Keltner’s sophomore season, when the Southern Conference postponed its 2020 season to the spring, he was 7-of-10 field goals in six games that year, including the 54-yarder. He nailed a 51-yard boot in 2022, and also sent one game into overtime with a last-second kick from 27.
Although the crowds were smaller for Keltner in the Southern Conference than they will be in the Southeastern Conference, he’ll still work on the same exact routine motion of kicking a football through the uprights. There’s no physical transition that needs to be made like with other positions. If Keltner can kick it through in practice, he’ll get the chance to do so in games.
“In the SoCon, in our league, the last couple of years the best kicker moved on,” Sandos said. “The kid before Keltner (Mitchell Fineran) was from Samford and moved on and kicked in the Big Ten Championship Game for Purdue. The kid before that (Grayson Atkins) went and kicked at North Carolina. That’s probably the position, kicker and punter, we’ve lost a lot to the FBS. The Southern Conference gets raided.”
Fineran made 42-of-53 field goals for the Boilermakers in 2021 and 2022, or 79.25 percent. Atkins made 31-of-41, 75.61 percent, for the Tar Heels in 2020 and 2021. Clearly, kicking translates.
“In all honesty, do they have to be great athletes? No. Do they have to have a big leg? Of course,” Sandos said. “But do they have to run a 4.4 or bench press 600 pounds as an offensive lineman? No. … At least in our league, it seems like the punters and kickers have the best chance of making an impact at FBS.
“Is it gonna be different kicking in front of 10-12,000 people, as opposed to 80-90,000? That’ll probably be the tell-tale. But just going off, again, the previous kickers that have left the Southern Conference and gone on to other schools, they’ve not had a problem adjusting to that part of the game.”
Keltner was second-team All-SoCon as a sophomore and first-team as a junior and senior. So his expectations are appropriately high.
Tyler Keltner pads ETSU's lead against Vanderbilt
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Sandos said Keltner “wanted to be a ‘Nole his whole life,” so he transferred last year to Florida State. It didn’t work out like he wanted — Ryan Fitzgerald was a three-year starter in 2023 and emerged as one of the top kickers in the nation — but Keltner did fulfill a lifelong dream of wearing the Garnet and Gold and decided to test the waters in the transfer portal. When Oklahoma special teams analyst Jay Nunez called, it offered Keltner the opportunity to fulfill another.
“My guess is he looked at, ‘Where is there a spot? Where is somewhere I can get a shot and give it a true chance to show what I can do?’ ” Sandos said. “So I’m assuming that Oklahoma gave him that. It doesn’t shock me.
“Hopefully it’s a true competition and he gets a chance to win the job.”
- Follow AllSooners on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest OU news!
- Want even more Sooners news? Check out the SI.com OU team page here!
- Listen and subscribe to the AllSooners Podcast!
- Watch more Sooners videos and subscribe on YouTube!
- Sign up for your premium membership to AllSooners.com today, and get access to the entire Fan Nation premium network!
