Kenny Perry talks about Texas Tech football’s kicking competition
Assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Kenny Perry talks about the kicking competition in Texas Tech football.
Veteran assistant Kenny Perry is a man of many responsibilities on the Texas Tech football team.
As an assistant head coach, he’s something of a right-hand man to Joey McGuire, which is interesting considering they always battled each other across the field as high school coaches of rival programs. As Tech’s running backs coach, Perry led the position department that produced a semifinalist for the Doak Walker Award last season when Tahj Brooks rushed for 1,538 yards.
More for the resume: As special teams coordinator over the past two years, he had something to do with the successes of Ray Guy Award semifinalist Austin McNamara, Lou Groza Award semifinalist Trey Wolff, Gino Garcia and Drae McCray.
All of this led to Texas-El Paso interviewing Perry for the head coaching job last offseason. The Miners went in a different direction and Perry stayed at Tech, where he’s back alongside McGuire and can still tell the Red Raiders to hand the ball off to Tahj.
This spring and summer, he still had to make some decisions regarding special teams, with the punter and punt return specialist missing and unexpected competition among kickers.
Here is a more detailed investigation.
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Kickers
Expected starter: Gino Garcia, Sr.
Primary depth: Reese Burkhardt, Sr.
In short: Garcia is a sixth-year senior who has made 48 of 69 field goals in his career. Last year he made 16 of 22, including a late game-winner at Kansas. Burkhardt has never attempted a field goal in a college game.
To determine: Can Garcia fend off a Burkhardt charge and keep his job? That question seems unanswerable, but Tech coach Joey McGuire said at the end of spring practice and during the summer that Burkhardt offered an alternative. In the spring game at the Sports Performance Center, he returned a 54-yard kick in the final minute of regulation to tie the game and a 43-yard kick in overtime to win. In three years at Alabama-Birmingham and last year at Tech, Burkhardt has returned the kickoff 214 times.
Related: Who will be the field goal kicker for the Texas Tech football team? That is still up in the air
Related: What does Reese Burkhardt’s spring game mean for the Texas Tech football kicker job?
player
Expected starter: Jack Burgess, Jr.
Primary depth: Gino Garcia, Sr.
In short: Austin McNamara was Texas Tech’s punter for five years, setting the school and Big 12 record for career punting average with 45.91 yards and setting school and conference records for single-season average with his 48.2 yards in 2021. His successor is Burgess, a transfer from Weber State whose numbers last year – 47.2 yards average, 20 punts over 50 yards, 21 inside the 20-yard line – almost exactly matched McNamara’s.
To determine: Burgess, from the South Australian state of Victoria, is another product of the Prokick Australia program, whose trainees are typically versatile. How often will Tech use him in the roll-out rugby style as opposed to traditional American spiral punting? Burgess estimates he used 70% rugby style and 30% traditional style at Weber State, but believes he will play more of the American spiral style at the Red Raiders.
Deep Snapper
Expected starter: Jackson Knotts, Sr.
Primary depth: Rylan Vagana, Ms.
In short: Knotts could be Texas Tech’s special teams snapper for the fourth year in a row. The Floridian was the Red Raiders’ deep snapper in all 38 games of his career until he tore a knee ligament in Texas’ final game of the 2023 regular season, which kept him out of the Independence Bowl. Tech signed Vagana as his eventual successor.
To determine: Will Knotts be medically cleared to play in the season’s opening game? McGuire said after the spring and into the summer that Knotts is on track to return to start the season. Knotts has been practicing and said he knows of no reason why the medical staff shouldn’t clear him to play in game one.
Related: Texas Tech football’s Jackson Knotts has an ambitious story on “How I spent my summer”
Return specialists
Expected starters: KR Drae McCray, Sr.; PR Josh Kelly, Sr.
Primary depth: KR PR Jordan Brown, Sr.; PR KR Micah Hudson, Fr.
In short: McCray’s kickoff return average of 27.6 yards was ninth in the FBS last season and first in the Big 12 among qualifiers. There’s no reason to believe he couldn’t be just as good or better, as this is his first time through the Big 12. Myles Price has intercepted the most punts the past two years, but Price has transferred to Indiana and at least five receivers are in contention to succeed him.
To determine: Who ends up getting most of the punt return duties? McGuire said after spring ball he would have liked to see McCray take the job because of how quickly and explosively he returns kickoffs. However, about 10 days before the season opener, the Tech coach sounded more confident in Kelly after seeing him catch punts more smoothly in practice. Interestingly, in his four years at Fresno State and one at Washington State, Kelly never returned a punt in a game. Also, don’t be surprised if Hudson or Brown get a chance to return punts.
