Sooners can count on kicker Hunnicutt heading into season
NORMAN, Okla. - About two weeks from the start of the season and no one outside of the Oklahoma coaches office knows who the starting quarterback will be.
There have been rumblings about a change in defensive schemes to go along with the new defensive line coach and a whole lot of new defensive linemen, too.
A new special teams coach, a new offensive line coach.
And there's Michael Hunnicutt, about the only consistent on a team where, heading into the season, you'll need a roster or you won't know the names.
"It's all about consistency," said the Sooner kicker.
Yeah, the kicker said that. When football teams talk consistency, generally the kicker isn't the first player who comes to mind. Yet, here we are with the Oklahoma football team, where no one knows (or is saying) anything is a sure thing.
Outside of Hunnicutt, that is.
We might not know (or have seen) if Blake Bell can throw the ball, but we know Hunnicutt can kick. He made 11 in a row last season on the way to 17-for-21 season (84.4 percent). He took over the starting position in 2011, three games into the season and went 21-of-24 (87.5 percent), including a 53-yarder right before halftime at Kansas State.
"I like to think I've had some successful seasons," Hunnicutt said. "But there's some room for improvement.
Sure, he's right. There are a few misses he wants back, a few extra points that weren't true, but when it comes to consistency and Oklahoma football, Hunnicutt is something you can count on.
"The goal is to get to 90 percent or to have a perfect season," Hunnicutt said. "Obviously, I feel secure, but there are guys coming up. When I got here, I tried to take someone's job and now there's someone trying to take mine. I make sure I work every day so no one is passing me up."
He went back to his hometown of Dallas during the summer and worked with the same coach he kicked with through his high school years. He went to Arizona and worked another camp, too.
All with the same goal in mind:
"Just repeating the same motion every time," Hunnicutt said. "Working the same drills, trying to get the same leg swing every time."
Just trying to be consistent.
"I want to be all-conference this season," he said. "Help my team, and hopefully it's all extra points, but if a field goal comes up, I want to knock that through."
As for the rest of the team, Hunnicutt says he's like us – he doesn't know who will be starting, and where, either.
"I'm right there with you all trying to figure it out," he said.
Follow Andrew Gilman on Twitter: @andrewgilmanOK