Oklahoma football: Kicker Austin Seibert joins Sooners’ award watch party
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football all-purpose kicker Austin Seibert has been named to the preseason watch list for two national individual awards.
The Sooner senior from Belleville, Illinois, handles both the punting and placekicking duties for Oklahoma, and he has done so for the past three seasons.
He is the only Big 12 player to be nominated, as a preseason watch list candidate, for both the Ray Guy Award and the Lou Groza Award.
The Ray Guy Award is presented every season to the player determined to be the best punter in college football. The Lou Groza Award is conferred annually to the top collegiate place-kicker (kickoffs, field goals, extra points).
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Seibert is one of 27 watch-list candidates who currently are being considered for the Ray Guy Award. Last season, he averaged a career-best 42.3 yards on 43 punts, with a long of 57 yards. In three seasons at OU, Seibert has averaged right at 42 yards per punt. He has 28 punts of 50 yards or more in his career, 11 of which occurred last season.
His career field-goal percentage is .767 (46 of 60). He had his best season in 2017, successful in 17 of 21 field-goal attempts, with a long of 51 yards. Seibert was perfect in extra-point attempts last season (81 for 81).
Unfortunately, the Sooner kicker won’t be remembered as much for the 17 field goals he made last season as he will for the one he missed in the second overtime against Georgia in the College Football Playoff.
Adam Nunez of TCU is the only other punter from the Big 12 named to the 2018 Ray Guy Award watch list. Connor Martin of Baylor and Matt Ammendola of Oklahoma State are preseason watch candidates for the Lou Groza Award along with OU’s Seibert.
No player from Oklahoma has ever won either the Lou Groza Award or the Ray Guy Award.