Oklahoma football: Michael Turk named to Ray Guy Award watchlist

Yet another Sooner has been named to a preseason award watchlist! This time Oklahoma football punter Michael Turk has been named to the watch list for the Ray Guy award, given annually to the nation’s top punter.

No Sooner has ever won the award, but Turk has a pretty good chance. He is clearly one of the nation’s elite at his position. He was originally the punter for Arizona State but transferred in before the 2021 season.

Turk is a fun-loving guy who has a massive following because of his Youtube channel “Hangtime”. He does a variety of things on that channel from contests and fun content with his teammates, to pranks in the athletic facilities and much more. I would highly recommend checking his content out as it is, quite a lot of fun.

On the field, Turk punted only 35 times in 2022, that may sound like a lot for the Sooners, but as a whole 35 punts are not that much for an entire season, but still he averaged over 51.2 yards per punt. Quite a solid feat, in fact, that average led the country.

The Oklahoma Sooners have college football playoff expectations which means strong special teams are key. With the Sooners losing kicker Gabe Brkic, keeping a punter the caliber of Turk is huge for OU. The field position battle as always will be key in football, and with new schemes, on both sides of the ball, the ability to play complimentary and be much improved on special teams will be paramount.

Turk is not just a stickler to negotiating field position with the opposition on Saturdays but is a mean real-life negotiator as well. He negotiated to get a free sports car! Check out his video of the story right here.