Bert Auburn could make Texas history in 2024 and break a number of records on the way
The Texas Longhorns’ 2023 successes featured superstar play at a number of positions, namely kicker. Senior placekicker Bert Auburn was a critical part of Texas’ 2023 run to the Big 12 Championship and College Football Playoff and more of the same in 2024 should see him take the top spot in several all-time school leaderboards related to putting the ball through the uprights.
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Auburn, a senior from Flower Mound (Texas) who remains part of the walk-on ranks, has been the Longhorns’ full-time placekicker during the past two seasons. He was 21-for-26 in 2022 with a long of 49 and followed that up with a 29-for-35 season in 2023 with a career-best 54-yarder against Texas Tech at the end of the season. For his career, he’s 50-for-61. Those 50 makes have him fifth in the school record books behind Jeff Ward and Kris Stockton (58), Phil Dawson (59), and Cameron Dicker (60).
Just 10 more makes, something it took him six games to accomplish in 2023, would put him past his former teammate Dicker and tops among a group of Longhorn kickers that includes Dawson, Stockton, Russell Erxleben, Happy Feller, Dusty Mangum, Hunter Lawrence, Justin Tucker, David Pino, Ryan Bailey, and All-American Anthony Fera. Nineteen more kicks, made or missed, and Auburn would hold the school record for attempts.
Additionally, Auburn has yet to miss any of his 114 extra point tries. With just eight more makes, Auburn would break Mangum’s record for most consecutive extra points made.
In 2023, Auburn made a school record 19 consecutive field goals from the Oklahoma game through the Texas Tech regular season finale, when he converted all five field goal attempts and tied a school record in the process. The Big 12 Championship campaign that saw Auburn earn first-team All-Big 12 honors set school records for most field goals made and attempted in a season.
“When you keep making kicks, the goalposts look a little wider than normal,” Auburn said last year.
Because of some of the Longhorns’ struggles within the red zone last season, Auburn received plenty of opportunities to convert the Texas offense’s efforts into three points. His ability to both make those field goals and extend his range gave Steve Sarkisian a lot of confidence in his specialist.
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“Inside 50 yards, we feel very comfortable with Bert, all things considering with wind and whatnot,” Sarkisian said in November. “He gives me that confidence. It’s been two straight years now where that guy has made really big kicks for us at critical moments in the fourth quarters of games that have given us opportunities.”
Auburn has a name and a hair style that grabs attention in the Southeastern Conference. He’s also adept at marketing his name, image, and likeness as he and former Alabama kicker Will Reichard co-starred in a Goldman Sachs commercial filmed at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.
That type of built-in attention as he takes part in Texas’ first SEC season, paired with a third-straight year of quality placekicking, could put Auburn in the national consciousness as far as kickers go in a way not seen on the 40 Acres in over a decade. Despite his great college career, Dicker earned loftier accolades as a punter than as a kicker. The last Texas kicker to earn first-team All-America honors was Fera in 2013. No Longhorn has ever won the Lou Groza Award, given annually to the nation’s top placekicker.
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Auburn could make history at Texas if he puts together an award-worthy season in 2024. The path to those honors includes etching his name at the top of UT placekicking leaderboards.
