NORMAN — A lot of fans likely feel anxious when their team's kicker steps on the field for a crucial field goal.

That includes Oklahoma kicker Tyler Keltner.

Keltner finds himself feeling nervous when he watches other kickers on TV. But, ironically, it's a completely different story when he steps on the field.

"You might not believe me but I get more nervous watching kickers on TV than me when I'm kicking by myself," Keltner said on Monday. "When it's me out there in a game, there's a certain calmness that comes through. I think it's just everybody practicing. I'm just so confident in everybody and confident in what I do. I go out there and it's just like pure bliss.

"Watching people on TV kick ... I'm like, 'What are they going to do? How's their operation? And they've been practicing? What are they doing?' But when it's us and when it's me, it's just the best feeling in the world."

Based on his performance in last Friday's 51-3 win over Temple, that certainly seemed to be the case.

Keltner was immediately thrown into the fire in his OU debut. His first attempt came from 50 yards out but he calmly nailed it through the uprights, marking the longest field goal by an OU kicker since 2021. From there it was smooth sailing, as Keltner made two more attempts from 42 and 24 yards out, respectively, and made all six of his extra-point attempts.

For his perfect performance, Keltner was named as the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week — making him the first Sooner player to win a weekly award in their new conference.

"I was sent out for three kicks and I'm never going to go into a kick thinking I'm going to miss, so I did what Coach sent me out there to do," Keltner said. "But to be a part of OU history like that and to just kind of wear that, it's really special and something that I'd never imagined would happen. The guys really showed up on (Friday). They blocked their butts off for me. We just had a really good game."

Keltner's was more impressive given that there was pressure for him to perform. The kicking game was an issue the last two seasons — Zac Schmit made 27 of 39 kicks the last two seasons — and Keltner was brought in from Florida State during the offseason as the Sooners focused on improving their special teams.

The competition between Schmit and Keltner began during the spring and heated up during fall camp. The Sooners waited until the depth chart was released before announcing that Keltner had won the job, while Schmit would handle kickoffs. Keltner's performance against Temple likely helped him solidify his place on the depth chart.

The battle was as "close as it can be," Keltner said, but it made both players better.

"I think me coming in here helped him and I think seeing how good he was, it helped me out," Keltner said. "It really was an iron sharpening iron situation. It was one of those things where no matter who was going to step on the field this year, there was going to be a lot of success. I'm happy to be on this end of it, but you know that's just how it is. Both of us, we were just so good through it all and it just humbles me even more to have this opportunity to be able to play with this team.

"I was just telling somebody earlier that I'm not sure if I would have had the night I had if Zach Schmit didn't have the night that he had... In games like that — when you have 10 kickoffs — that's going to destroy anybody's leg, especially if you're doing both. So props to him. He's such a massive, massive support beam for this team. We're both just doing what we can to help this team out."

It's ultimately Keltner's work ethic, confidence and consistency that won him the job and the support of his teammates. And after his performance against Temple, fans can be confident that the Sooners have their field-goal kicker.

“His work ethic is next to none," OU punter Luke Elzinga said. "He takes everything so seriously. Also likes to have a little fun. But stretching, whether it’s his technique, footwork, anything that goes into kicking, he takes to the next level and does everything. So I wasn’t surprised when he had his day (Friday).

"We kind of knew what was going to happen when he went out there. He just has a lot of confidence in himself. That proved it to all of us. He went out there and we didn’t really expect anything else.”

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