The Longhorns added a transfer punter while retaining their longterm future at the position. Jeff Banks hopes it works out well for both of them.
ATLANTA — For Texas Longhorns special teams coordinator Jeff Banks, the future is both now and later at the punter position.
Freshman Michael Kern is now, serving as the starter for the College Football Playoff quarterfinal against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Peach Bowl on Wednesday.
Kern is also later, possessing the potential to develop into the punter of the future that Banks imagined when he signed the nation’s No. 4 punter out of Florida powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas in the 2024 class.
The bridge is Michigan State and Utah transfer Jack Bouwmeester, a proven commodity for the Utes who has one year of eligibility remaining after committing to the Longhorns this month following a visit to the Forty Acres.
A product of ProKick Australia, Bouwmeester has a background in Australian Rules Football and in cricket before blossoming into a standout performer in 2023 at Utah, leading Pac-12 and ranking No. 16 nationally with 45.5 yards per punt. Bouwmeester earned recognition as a Ray Guy award finalist that season with the help of 19 punts of 50-plus yards.
In 2024, Bouwmeester continued punting at a high level, averaging 44.7 yards per punt during the regular season to lead the Big 12 with 13 punts of 50-plus yards.
Bouwmeester wants to take the next step in his development, according to Banks — where Utah rolled him out a lot to take advantage of his athleticism and background in Aussie Rules football, Texas will allow him to be more of a “pocket punter” in the mold that Banks believes in.
“What we see on film is hang time and leg explosion. We see a veteran guy who has all his clubs in the bag, if you will, of placing the ball in the corners, doing a great job inside the 15, of sky punting. He’s got a dynamic leg,” Banks said on Monday during Peach Bowl Media Day at the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Texas special teams coordinator billed it as a pending “great competition” between Bouwmeester and Kern, an area that was notably lacking after the Horns lost graduate transfer Ryan Sanborn following the 2023 season and only had walk-on Ian Ratliff to compete against Kern after the latter’s arrival in June when Banks and the Texas staff to declined to add another punter to push the late-arriving freshman.
In hindsight, it was a strategic miscalculation, especially when Kern suffered a midseason injury that forced Ratliff into the starting role against Oklahoma and Georgia in October. Ratliff acquitted himself well enough to earn an opportunity elsewhere after entering the NCAA transfer portal this month, but Kern’s overall performance was lacking on a special teams unit that shockingly underachieved under Banks this year across a variety of units. Across every unit, in fact.
Kern is currently averaging 40.5 yards per punt on 32 attempts this season heading into the Peach Bowl. Banks billed his recent efforts as “his best games,” a questionable assertion, but the more important storyline is that the Longhorns want Bouwmeester to mentor Kern, a longterm asset Banks wants to keep in the program.
“We’re excited about his growth and development, we’re excited about his future,” Banks said of Kern. “We feel like we need to get better there, so we wanted to enhance the position with an older guy, but we didn’t want Michael to transfer, we didn’t want to bring a young guy in, so we think this will be a really good marriage between the two guys and hopefully things work out well for both of them.”
The accompanying storyline is that Texas is projected to carry five specialists on scholarship next season — Bouwmeester, Kern, returning kicker Bert Auburn, kickoff specialist Will Stone, and long snapper Lance St. Louis. It’s a hefty load of almost nine percent of an 85-man scholarship roster with every single starting specialist on roster.
Banks and Sarkisian are willing to carry that load, as it stands now, while opting for a marriage they hope will dramatically improve the program’s punting in 2025 and beyond.