College kickers are notoriously unreliable, but that doesn’t make anyone feel any better about a loss that comes after struggling in the kicking game. That’s particularly true for a school like Texas, which has national championship aspirations and needs the special teams play to match.
Texas is going to have a new primary kicker in 2025, leaving some questions at the position for the Longhorns. Despite that, head coach Steve Sarkisian is confident in his specialists this season.
“We got off to a little slow start [in the scrimmage] kicking game.” Steve Sarkisian said. “But I think Mason [Shipley] really stepped up, and I feel very confident in what he can do. He made a couple really big kicks for us there at the end. Then, obviously, we know we have Will [Stone] kicking off for us. So, I think we’re in good shape from a specialty standpoint that way.”
Since 2022, Texas has leaned on kicker Bert Auburn, who in three seasons as the Longhorns’ primary kicker made 178 out of 178 extra points. He also made 66 of 86 field goals, which is a 76.7 percent clip. It was also good for 376 points in his career, but now he’s moved on and transferred to Miami.
Will Stone has been with Texas since 2022. In that time, he’s consistently handled the kickoff duties for the Longhorns. A year removed from kicking 56 touchbacks, he’s once again going to take on that role. He has also made two extra points but has never attempted a field goal. Based on what Steve Sarkisian shared, it doesn’t sound like he’s going to start kicking field goals outside of an emergency, either.
To replace Bert Auburn, Steve Sarkisian dipped into the Transfer Portal. There, Texas pulled out Mason Shipley. The brother of two college kickers, Shipley spent three seasons at Texas State and was at Oklahoma State before that, though he only recorded stats with the Bobcats. In 38 games over three seasons at Texas State, Shipley would make 111 out of 114 extra points. He also knocked down 31 of 35 field goals, for an 88.6 percent career mark. That’s a career where he’s scored 204 points so far.
If anything were to go wrong, Texas also has Spencer Barnett on its roster. Now in his second season, he didn’t see action last year, taking a redshirt.
There’s plenty of reason for Steve Sarkisian to be confident in his kicking game moving into the 2025 season. It will be interesting to see how quickly he needs to rely on that unit, with the Longhorns opening the season on the road against Ohio State.