AUSTIN, Texas — Now in the midst of game week in preparation for the season opener against the Texas State Bobcats on Saturday at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, the Texas Longhorns have gone through mock game week and preseason camp to establish the team’s depth chart.
During Monday’s press conference, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian provided some insight into that depth chart on the special teams side in the wake of coordinator Jeff Banks losing all three starting specialists from last
year’s team.
At kicker, Gio Spetic won the job of freshman Jake Collett and junior Spencer Barnett. An Ohio and Memphis transfer, Spetic was brought in to replace Mason Shipley and clearly had an edge in the competition when Sarkisian cited his efforts in the first scrimmage of preseason camp during which he missed his first attempt from 49 yards before hitting from 22 yards, 24 yards, 39 yards, 47 yards, and 48 yards. Over three seasons, Spetic has hit 74.2 percent of his field goals with a long of 55 yards, as well as making 129-of-131 point-after attempts, including all 49 PATs last year with the Tigers.
If Spetic struggles — he only connected on three of his six attempts last year between 40 and 49 years — Sarkisian said that Collett has improved since arriving on the Forty Acres during the spring as the No. 4 kicker in the 2026 class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings.
Another freshman specialist, punter Mikey Bukauskas, ranked No. 3 at his position in this year’s class, has also come on to provide depth enabled by the increase in available scholarships.
“To think that those are our two backups, and this is the era of 105 scholarships, where the benefit is, in the past, you’re kind of rolling the dice on a walk on as a backup. We’ve got two scholarship punters and kickers for us that we feel very good about,” Sarkisian said.
Bukauskas will back up Florida State transfer Mac Chiumento, who averaged 44 yards on 27 punts last year for the Seminoles. Chiumento’s experience in 2025 was limited by Florida State not punting at all in three games, but Chiumento did take advantage of his opportunities with 13 punts downed inside the 20-yard line, six punts of at least 50 yards, and only one touchback. The 6’4, 228-pounder also has some experience as a holder and a kickoff specialist with four touchbacks on six kickoffs as a freshman in 2022.
Although Sarkisian did not reveal who will handle those duties, Spetic recorded 55 touchbacks on 78 kickoffs last year, averaging 63.4 yards per kickoff.
At deep snapper, Texas brought in New Mexico transfer Trey Dubuc to replace Lance St. Louis and Dubuc won the competition with freshman Trott O’Neal, who is currently the only other rostered deep snapper for the Longhorns after walk-on Tate Haver graduated in three years.
For a second straight year, senior running back/wide receiver Ryan Niblett will handle punt and kickoff returns as the team’s primary return man. One of the nation’s most dynamic punt returners in 2025 with two touchdowns and an average of 22.7 yards per return, Niblett wasn’t as explosive on kickoff returns with a long of just 25 yards, so that’s an area where the Horns need to block better in front of him.
Texas also has other options.
“We’ve got a lot of good returners, first of all, that we feel comfortable if they went in,” Sarkisian said.
Among those players are fifth-year running back Raleek Brown, who had a long kickoff return in the spring-ending open practice, and freshman Jermaine Bishop, who had three return touchdowns in his standout high school career at Willis.
