MORGANTOWN — If there is one area on his team that Neal Brown feels the most confident in, it just might be the specialists.
For years, Brown has held up punter Oliver Straw and long snapper Austin Brinkman as two of the best players in the country at their positions and neither one has ever done anything to add doubt to Brown’s claim.
Brinkman, a senior, has started all 38 games during his Mountaineer career.
“I think Brinkman is as good at his job as any player in the country,” Brown said. “I don’t think there’s a better long snapper in the country than him.”
Straw, a junior from Australia, had nearly identical 2022 and 2023 seasons. His punt average (42.5 vs. 43), fair catches (24 vs. 21), punts inside the 20 (18 vs. 19) and punts of over 50 yards (eight both years) were all right in line.
“I think what you’re going to see with him is some added distance because he got stronger,” Brown said. “He’s always done a great job with his location, but he’s going to add some distance to his kicks.”
In addition to Brinkman and Straw, Michael Hayes transferred in from Georgia State last season and provided the Mountaineers with solid kicking.
Hayes, a senior, made 17-of-21 field goals, connecting on a long of 49. He was also 46-46 on point-after attempts.
Hayes was limited during spring practices, allowing redshirt sophomore RJ Kocan the chance to showcase what he can do, including kicking during the spring game.
“RJ Kocan has done a great job,” WVU special teams coordinator Jeff Koonz said. “His leg strength, his accuracy have been phenomenal. It’s been fun to see him come up.”
The one area where Hayes struggled last year was on kickoffs, where he only had 20 touchbacks on 73 attempts. Wether Hayes or Kocan handle kickoffs in 2024, Koonz expects improvement.
“The thing about all of our kickers is, they all have big legs,” Koonz said. “They’re all very capable to get the ball down the field. It’s hang time, it’s location and there’s a big accuracy point to kickoff, too. It’s not just kick it through the end zone as hard as you can.”
For backups, WVU has redshirt freshman Nate Flower at kicker, Leighton Bechdel, Ronan Swope and Luke Savino at punter and Macguire Moss at long snapper.
Projected Depth Chart
Kicker
Michael Hayes, R-Sr.
RJ Kocan, R-So.
Nate Flower, R-Fr.
Punter
Oliver Straw, Jr.
Leighton Bechdel, R-Sr.
Ronan Swope, R-Jr.
Luke Savino, R-Fr.
Long Snapper
Austin Brinkman, Sr.
Macguire Moss, R-So.
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