OSU Will Hold Open Tryouts For a Kicker This Year (And Every Year)

In reality, this is not a new concept, but it might be new to you. Mike Gundy reiterated this week that OSU will have open tryouts for anyone who can kick a football long distances.

“We always have tryouts when school starts,” said Gundy on Saturday. “We’ve always made it public that if there’s a young man in this school that can kick or punt — we have about 21,000 students here, some of them might be off-campus — but as much as soccer has grown in this state I would always think that there is someone here that has to be able to kick.

“They’re always welcome to come over and it’s a great spot to earn a scholarship because we have to have those punters and those kickers. As you guys know, we only sign one of those guys every three or four years, so there’s always roster spots. Now, [Matt] Ammendola, he’s doing good kicking the ball and (Ben) Grogan is still in the world he lives in and Zach (Sinor) is where he is. Ammendola will be a guy that gets a chance to do some kickoff stuff for us because he has a really powerful leg. If he can satisfy what we need there, that allows Grogan to focus more on what his specialty is … Ammendola brings us a little depth that we haven’t had over the past few years.”

But if you can out-kick him, you’re more than welcome. It’s much-needed too. Oklahoma State was No. 73 in the country last year in touchbacks with just 22. If it can lower its opponent’s averaging starting field position from where it was last year (the 40-yard line) by three yards to the 37-yard line, that’s worth 0.7 points per drive. OSU kicked off 7-8 times a game last year so that could be worth five points per contest. That’s a big deal when it comes to the world of college football.

Of course you’re going to have to beat out the big boy leg of Ammendola.