Best of the Big 12: OU's Michael Turk, Texas' D'Shawn Jamison lead special teams

Four of the 20 semifinalists of the Lou Groza Award last season were Big 12 kickers. Three of the four turned pro, including Groza Award finalist Gabe Brkic from Oklahoma and Texas Tech's Jonathan Garibay, who beat Iowa State with a 62-yard field goal as time expired.

The departures of Brkic, Garibay and Iowa State kicker Andrew Mevis doesn't mean the conference is going to be short on memorable special-teams moments this year. It figures to be quite the opposite.

The Big 12 is full of top-notch punters and dangerous return men that will give those punters and kickers pause. Punters such as Oklahoma's Michael Turk and Texas Tech's Austin McNamara are chasing records. And there's a good chance that someone among Texas' D'Shawn Jamison, Kansas State's Malik Knowles and Phillip Brooks and TCU's Derius Davis will electrify fans with a special-teams touchdown or two this fall, because every one of them has done so more than once already.

Special-teams coaches across the conference might want to pour an extra coffee and spend another hour scheming to keep it out of their hands. All part of the fun.

We continue our series of the Big 12's best players by position with a look at special teams.

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1. Michael Turk, punter, Oklahoma

Think punters are boring? Turk has an entertaining YouTube channel — Hangtime — with more than 150,000 subscribers. But the sixth-year senior from Fort Bend Ridge Point is used to delivering in front of a large audience. Turk quickly outgrew his humble freshman beginning at Lafayette, an FCS program in the Patriot League. Having spent three years at Arizona State and now starting his second season at Oklahoma, Turk is averaging 47.7 yards per punt at the FBS level. That has him stalking the FBS career record of 47.8 set by Colorado State's Ryan Stonehouse (2017-21). Turk really turned heads last season when he averaged 51.2 yards per punt.

More:Ranking Big 12 quarterbacks: Is Spencer Sanders or Dillon Gabriel the best in 2022?

2. D’Shawn Jamison, return specialist, Texas

The fifth-year senior from Houston Lamar spends most of his time as a Longhorns’ defensive back, but holds your breath when he gets his hands on the football. Jamison scored touchdowns on a 90-yard punt return against Kansas State in 2018, a 98-yard kickoff return against Rice in 2019 and a 100-yard kickoff return at Oklahoma State in 2020, the latter sparking a come-from-behind victory. He also scored with a blocked point-after runback against Kansas in 2019 and had a 98-yard kickoff return to the Kansas State 1-yard line in 2020. He holds Texas records for single-season and single-game kickoff-return average at 31.7 and 50.0 yards, respectively.

3. Austin McNamara, punter, Texas Tech

The 2021 season was a record-breaker for McNamara, and there’s a good chance the 2022 season will be, too. The senior from Gilbert, Arizona, broke the Tech single-season record with a 48.2-yard average, leading the Red Raiders to fifth in the FBS in net punting (43.98 yards). His 46.3-yard average over three seasons puts him in position to break Taylor Symmank's school career record of 43.7. Even when Tech was shut out for the first time since 1997 — a 23-0 defeat last year to Oklahoma State — McNamara broke an FBS single-game record with eight punts of at least 50 yards.

4. Malik Knowles, return specialist, Kansas State

K-State has 58 punt-return and kickoff-return touchdowns since 2005, and no other FBS program comes anywhere close. Since Chris Klieman took over as head coach in 2019, the Wildcats have added 10 to that total, the most of any power-five team in that time frame. Knowles and Phillip Brooks (he's on this list, too) make kicking to the 'Cats a pick-your-poison proposition. Knowles is high on the list of FBS active career leaders with three kickoff returns for touchdowns and a 28.9-yard average. He averaged 33.1 yards last year, fourth in the FBS, and took kicks to the house in back-to-back weeks at Oklahoma State and against Oklahoma.

5. Casey Legg, kicker, West Virginia

The aptly named Legg was one of 20 semifinalists for last year’s Lou Groza Award (presented annually to the nation’s top kicker), which shows how far he’s come. Legg was a high-school soccer player who never kicked a football until the fall of 2017. He enjoyed a breakout year in 2021, starting the season by making his first 13 field goals, two short of the school record, and finishing 19 for 23. He converted all but one of his 16 field-goal attempts from inside 40 yards and had a long of 49 yards.

6. Derius Davis, return specialist, TCU

The Big 12 goes into the 2022 season boasting two of the top three active FBS players in career punt-return average, Davis being one of those. The former Louisiana 200-meters state champion in high school is a big things-from-small packages guy. Davis debuted his freshman year with a 73-yard punt-return TD against Southern, added punt-return TDs at Baylor and at Kansas in 2020 and took a kickoff back all the way last year against West Virginia. His 14.5-yard punt-return average in 2020 was best in the Big 12 and fifth in the FBS, and his career norm on punt returns is a robust 15.0.

7. Phillip Brooks, return specialist, Kansas State

The other half of K-State's one-two punch of return-game weapons, Brooks has averaged a whopping 15.8 yards per punt return in his career. The fifth-year senior wide receiver has three career punt-return touchdowns: for 66 yards against Navy in the Liberty Bowl at the end of the 2019 season and 55- and 52-yarders against rival Kansas in 2020. Though he averaged a solid 10.5 yards per punt return last season, he's due for another house call in '22, given that his long return last season was for 28 yards.

8. Tom Hutton, punter, Oklahoma State

Never mind the fact seven Big 12 punters last season had better averages than Hutton's 42.4 yards. The 32-year-old product of ProKick Australia forced opponents to fair catch 32 of his punts and landed 26 inside the 20-yard line, easily putting him first in the conference in both categories. The left-footer's superb hang time and directional kicking enabled the Cowboys' coverage unit to allow a total of 10 punt-return yards all season, second fewest in the FBS.

9. Issac Power, punter, Baylor

Power is beginning his his fourth year as the Bears' punter, but he took his game up a notch last season. After averaging 40.3 yards per punt in 2019 and again in 2020, he averaged 45.0 in 2021. On top of that, he boomed 20 punts of at least 50 yards, sharing the conference lead in that department with Oklahoma's Michael Turk and Texas Tech's Austin McNamara, and his 20 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line was second in the Big 12 to Oklahoma State's Tom Hutton. Power's a fifth-year senior from Castle Rock, Colorado.

10. Tanner Brown, kicker, Oklahoma State

Brown didn't even become the Cowboys' starting kicker until the fifth game last season. He made hay with the opportunity and finished with 17 field goals in 21 attempts. The highlights: a 4-for-4 game that was key to a 32-24 win against Texas and three field goals each against Texas Tech and Notre Dame. The latter three all came in from the late third quarter on at the Fiesta Bowl, helping the Cowboys turn a 28-28 tie with the Fighting Irish into a 37-28 lead. They hung on to win 37-35. And talk about getting bang for the buck: Brown, now a super senior, joined the program last year as a walk-on from Nevada-Las Vegas.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Ranking Big 12 special teams players: OU's Michael Turk leads the way