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Late in the spring, Texas is ramping up the battle at kicker

Joe Cookby:Joe Cook•04/16/25•

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Steve Sarkisian, Bert Auburn
Steve Sarkisian, Bert Auburn (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Today is an important day in Texas’ spring practices, as it marks when Steve Sarkisian plans to ramp up one of the notable position battles of the spring at a spot that drew significant attention for the Longhorns late in the 2024 season. But it’s not one of the flashier positions like right tackle or wide receiver. It’s kicker.

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Sarkisian was asked Wednesday about the ongoing battle between seniors Bert Auburn and Will Stone for the place-kicking role. Stone has been ahead of Auburn this spring, but Sarkisian and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks will pay closer attention to the role starting today.

“We haven’t done enough yet,” Sarkisian said Monday. “I think we’ll really start to ramp it up here Wednesday. We’ve done some, but now we’ve got to really start to ramp this thing up to get a real gauge of what it looks like.”

Kicker took center-stage late in the season but not for good reasons. After a standout 2023 season and an 8-for-12 start to the year through the Arkansas game, Auburn finished the year 8-for-14. In the postseason, the Flower Mound product was 4-for-6 versus Georgia, 1-for-1 versus Clemson, and a jarring 1-for-3 against Arizona State before Stone took over ahead of the Ohio State game. Auburn missed opportunities late in the SEC Championship and what would have been a game-winning field goal versus the Sun Devils, leading to the Longhorns to make a switch at the end of the year.

Stone didn’t attempt a field goal against the Buckeyes, but he did make both PAT attempts following Texas’ two touchdowns.

Sarkisian was quick to mention that there’s more to field goal kicking than just the kicker. It takes a quality snap and hold, but the focus rightfully goes on the most prominent third of that process.

And although it’s an often forgotten position until issues rear their head like it did last season, rules that apply for a position like wide receiver apply to kicker as well. Sarkisian wants to breed competition between Stone and Auburn in order to get the best out of both of them.

“The specialists are no different,” Sarkisian said. “We want to make sure that we can put as much confidence in them, that they can do the job, to get as much pressure on them that they can perform when they’re best is needed in critical moments. I think we’ve created that. I think we’re starting to see the best of that.”

Auburn was 16-for-25 from field goals last year and a perfect 64-of-64 on PATs. He was 29-for-35 in 2023 on his way to first-team All-Big 12 honors. His long in 2024 was 49 yards, topped in 2023 by a 54-yarder.

Stone, who has been Texas’ kickoff specialist since arriving on campus in 2022, has only lined up as the place-kicker twice in his Longhorn career. Both of those opportunities were the aforementioned PATs in the Cotton Bowl. As the kickoff specialist, Stone has recorded 280 kicks with 131 touchbacks and only four sent out of bounds. He committed no free kick out of bounds penalties in 2024.

Should Texas go into the portal, they won’t lack for options to pursue. Texas State’s Mason Shipley, a product of Liberty Hill, was 15-for-19 in 2024 and a perfect 15-for-15 in 2023. His long last season was 60 yards, a kick that took place indoors at Houston’s NRG Stadium just before halftime in a loss to Sam Houston State. There’s also Baylor’s Isaiah Hankins, who was 14-for-19 for the Bears last year with a long of 51.

But for now, Texas is looking to learn if the options on campus in Stone and Auburn contain the kicker the Longhorns will need for a run at the national championship. That’s a process that begins today, per Sarkisian.

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“Trying to work on that,” Sarkisian said. “That’ll be a big emphasis of ours as we continue to move forward.”

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