How a 2012 OU loss led Turk to Sooners
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Even Caleb Kelly, the old man on OU’s roster, wasn’t being recruited by colleges way back in 2012 when Notre Dame visited Norman and beat up on the Sooners 30-13.
But nearly a decade after that loss, which featured one of the most electric atmospheres ever at Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, that game paid off for the Sooners.
Ben Turk was the punter for the Fighting Irish that day, punting four
times for an average of just more than 40 yards.
But for years, Turk raved about the ambience in the stadium on that late October night. Turk played twice at USC’s historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, at Michigan’s fabled Big House, took on Army at Yankee Stadium and played his home games at perhaps college football’s most iconic venue, Notre Dame Stadium.
“He played at a lot of different stadiums and he said the most fun game that he had was playing at OU,” said Michael Turk, Ben’s brother and the Sooners’ current punter. “It was super loud.”
When Michael Turk was looking for his third collegiate home after deciding to leave Arizona State following the announcement of the school’s vaccination policy for the 2021 season, and OU came calling, Turk was quickly sold on joining the Sooners.
“Why would I not want to join an elite program?,” Turk said. “The coaches were super nice. I didn’t even have to visit.”
And Turk’s arrival has come at a point where the Sooners’ punter is as critical as it has been in recent seasons, as OU’s offense has scuffled — by their standards.
Turk has been a boon for the Sooners so far, averaging 46.5 yards on eight punts so far. Four of his punts have gone 50 or more yards, including three in the first half of last week’s win over West Virginia alone. Five of his punts have landed inside the opponents’ 20.
“He’s a weapon,” Sooners coach Lincoln Riley said. “He definitely factors into the decision-making for us. I hope we don’t have to use him too much but if we do, he’ll be ready.”
OU takes on Kansas State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in its first road game of the season.
The last time the Sooners played in Manhattan — a 48-41 loss in 2019 — punting cost the Sooners plenty.
Reeves Mundschau was needed just twice — both in the third quarter.
On his first one, his punt hit the turf and took a big bounce backward, winding up with just a 19-yard punt. Four plays later, the Wildcats scored to make it 34-23.
Later in the quarter, Mundschau had a 35-yard punt and the Wildcats went on a long touchdown drive to go up 4823 early in the fourth before the Sooners began their comeback.
With the Sooners offense is not exactly clicking on all cylinders, playing on the road in a hostile environment and with Kansas State probably without starting quarterback and OU-slayer Skylar Thompson, Saturday’s game could turn into a field-position battle.
“It’s super important because it takes the pressure off of you,” Riley said. “I think offensively, you don’t feel like you have to make it happen every single time because you feel like that guy can pin them down there and put our defense in great shape.”
Despite Turk’s deep family lineage on special teams — in addition to his brother, his uncle, Matt, spent nearly two decades in the NFL as a punter while another uncle, Dan, was a center and long snapper in the NFL — Michael Turk didn’t want to be a punter. He wanted to be a football player.
“Of course, punter counts as football, but I wanted to hit people,” Turk said.
So when he was in high school at Ridge Point High in Missouri City, Texas, just outside of Houston, Turk played safety.
Three anterior cruciate ligament tears — two in his left leg and one on his right — scuttled not only most of Turk’s high school career but also his aspirations of playing the position in college.
With that lineage, Turk figured he should give punting a try and potentially fulfill his collegiate dreams that route.
He took a year off of school and lived with his brother in Dallas, learning the craft and trying to find a landing spot.
“Some coaches would probably say (I punted) too much,” Turk said. “Sometimes I’d punt with my brother in the morning then Uber back to the field and then punt again for hours on end. I started to love it.”
Turk eventually turned to YouTube, where a clip of his punting helped earn a partial scholarship at Lafayette College.
After thriving there, setting a singleseason school record with a 42.7-yard punting average, Turk decided to find a Division I home, ultimately transferring to Arizona State.
After sitting out the 2018 season, Turk averaged 46 yards per punt in 2019, then came back to average 47.2 yards last season in the Sun Devils’ COVIDshortened four-game season.
He planned to finish out his career there, before the abrupt change late in the summer after the Sun Devils announced unvaccinated players wouldn’t be able to travel to road games.
He still has another season of eligibility remaining after this season.
“I’m glad after it’s all said and done, I’m here at OU,” Turk said.
And so is Riley.
“I don’t know that I’ve had one in my career that you feel like you could flip the position from anywhere,” the Sooners’ coach said. “I don’t care where he’s punting from.”