Texas kicker Bert Auburn has an opportunity to write his name near the top of many of the Longhorns’ kicker-related leaderboards during the 2024 season, one where he’ll be on scholarship. Auburn was rewarded with a full scholarship by Steve Sarkisian on Sunday during the team’s first meeting of the summer.
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“When we can reward those guys, there’s nothing better,” Sarkisian told the team. “Bert Auburn, you’re on scholarship.”
As is typical during these moments, Auburn gave a quick speech to his teammates.
“I don’t know what to say,” Auburn said. “I love all you guys, you guys are all like a family to me. Couldn’t be more excited to get to work this summer with y’all. Hook ’em!”
A former walk-on from Flower Mound, Auburn battled with scholarship kicker Will Stone to succeed Cameron Dicker ahead of the 2022 season. Stone took the kickoff role while Auburn earned the place-kicking responsibilities. During that 2022 campaign, Auburn made 21-of-26 field goals with a long of 49 yards. He was also 55-of-55 on extra points. Some big kicks were hit by Auburn, including several in losing efforts against Alabama and Texas Tech.
He kept the job heading into the 2023 season, where he had one of the best campaigns for a kicker in program history. Once again, he was perfect on point-after attempts hitting all 56. He was also 29-for-35 with a long of 54, and even had a stretch where he hit 19 consecutive field goals in the second half of the season.
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He’ll enter the 2024 season as a top candidate for the program’s first ever Lou Groza Award, given annually to the country’s best place-kicker. He’ll be on that quest as a scholarship football player for the University of Texas.
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