Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma football: Gabe Brkic’s leg looms large for Sooners’ final push

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Gabe Brkic (47) kicks a field goal to tie the game during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the West Virginia Mountaineers at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Oklahoma won 16-13.Lx13397
Oklahoma's Gabe Brkic (47) kicks a field goal to tie the game during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the West Virginia Mountaineers at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Oklahoma won 16-13.Lx13397 /
facebooktwitterreddit

Through nine Oklahoma football wins this season, the Sooners haven’t had to rely that much on field goals.

That’s because 73 percent of Oklahoma’s scoring drives this season have resulted in touchdowns.

But when the Sooners have to settle for a field goal, they have one of the best kickers in college football in redshirt- junior Gabe Brkic.

Brikic, who hails from Cardon, Ohio, has made 17 of 20 field-goal attempts this season, and is five of six on field-goal tries of 50 or more yards. Two of his 17 field goals are 56-yarders, the longest in college football this season.

"“He doesn’t take anything too serious,” Lincoln Riley said earlier this season. “I think he’s made that an advantage in his game. The guys really like and trust him. He’s got a good balance and perspective on things.“And he’s a lot of fun to have around when its fourth down and we’re on the 35-yard line,” the OU head coach quipped."

This past week, Brkic was named a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, which recognizes the best placekicker in college football every season. He was also a semifinalist last season as well as a Big 12 First-Team selection.

Brkic also handles the point-after-touchdown and kickoff duties for the Sooners. Remarkably, he has not missed a point-after attempt in his career and is 42 of 42 this season.

The fourth-year kicker has been incredibly accurate throughout his career, and the length of his made field goals this season has been really impressive.

In Oklahoma’s win over West Virginia earlier this season, Brkic made a 30-yard, walk-off, game-winning field goal, the first of his career.

It is a good bet that Oklahoma’s final three regular-season games, against the three teams that immediately trail the Sooners in the Big 12 standings, will be much closer contests than most of OU’s previous games this season, and that’s when having a scoring weapon like Brkic around is a giant plus.

Home/OU Football