Texas has come out of non-conference play with a shiny No. 1 ranking and a lot of unfinished business on special teams.
Jeff Banks’ group has shown both ends of the spectrum through three games: Gianni Spetic has looked like a real weapon, the deep-snapping and holding work has been solid, and then there’s everything else, which has been uneven enough to leave the Longhorns ranked No. 25 in SP+ through Week 3.
Spetic, the Ohio and Memphis transfer, has opened the year 5-for-5 on field goals and already drilled one from 52 yards in Saturday’s 30-6 win over Texas State. His path so far has been a steady climb in leverage.
He was barely needed in the opener, when he came on late for a 48-yarder midway through the fourth quarter of a blowout. At Ohio State, he was asked to answer earlier and delivered from 37 yards to get Texas on the board in the second quarter.
Against Texas State, he handled a heavier load, making the 52-yarder in the first quarter, adding a 34-yard kick before halftime, and finishing with a 23-yard field goal in the third.
His lone miss so far was wiped away by a penalty. Before the 23-yarder, Spetic pushed a 36-yard attempt wide right, but Texas still got the points after Jakevian Rodgers was flagged for roughing the kicker. Spetic was slow to get up after the hit, though he looked fine on the next try.
“I think Giovanni continues to be a weapon for us,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday.
The kicker has also been strong on kickoffs, with a 77.3 percent touchback rate. Sarkisian called that part of the operation a real positive.
“The amount of touchbacks we’re getting on kickoffs has been tremendous,” Sarkisian said.
Punting has not matched that standard. Florida State transfer Mac Chiumento has had a rough first stretch replacing Jack Bouwmeester, with six punts that have not consistently flipped the field.
His first one against Ohio State went 43 yards but turned into a 16-yard return, and he later had another 43-yarder before a 36-yard punt when Texas needed more from its own 26-yard line. He averaged 40.7 yards per punt in that game.
Against UTSA, the issues continued. A 38-yard punt in the second quarter came up short of pinning the Roadrunners deep, and a 36-yard effort after halftime was compounded by a face-mask penalty on senior safety Derek Williams, one of three special teams penalties Texas committed Saturday. Chiumento’s best punt of the year came later in that game, a 52-yarder that helps prop up his 41.3-yard average, which is down almost three yards from his 2025 mark.
If that trend keeps going, Banks may have to look at freshman Mikey Bukauskas.
Coverage has been more stable, but not flawless. Ohio State’s Brandon Inniss produced the only return yardage against the punt coverage unit so far with a 16-yarder, while another return was stopped for no gain.
Kickoff coverage has allowed 20.2 yards per return on five attempts, a figure that ranks 84th nationally, with a long of 26. That’s not where Texas wants to be, especially with the talent on hand and the field-position battle available to win.
The bigger headache has been on returns. Senior Ryan Niblett’s kickoff return numbers have been poor across the board, and the results have cost Texas ground every week.
He’s averaging 13.3 yards on four returns, which ranks 117th nationally. The returns have gone for nine yards against Texas State, 16 against Ohio State, 12 against UTSA, and 19 on Saturday.
That last one also came with a holding penalty on freshman wide receiver Kohen Brown, forcing Texas to start at its own 8-yard line and nearly leading to a safety on the next play.
Altogether, those four returns have cost Texas 33 yards of field position, not counting the penalty, which made that last sequence even worse.
“There was a couple tough calls we got in the return game that we need to clean up, but it was good to get Ryan with the ball in his hands in the return game,” Sarkisian said. “We need to shore up some things in the kickoff return game to to be even better there.”
That’s putting it mildly. Texas has not just been average there; it has been actively hurting itself.
There were some signs of life on punt returns against UTSA. Texas State and Ohio State mostly avoided Niblett, and the Buckeyes even held him to a two-yard loss on his only punt return through the first two games.
The Roadrunners took a different approach and kicked toward the sideline, which helped produce a 38.5-yard average on eight punts. Niblett’s longest return of the day, a 34-yarder, was wiped out by a block in the back penalty on sophomore defensive end Lance Jackson, though he did add a 14-yard return in the third quarter.
So there is a little bit of everything in Texas’ special teams right now: Spetic looking dependable, Chiumento searching for consistency, the coverage units mostly holding their own, and the return game still far below what Banks’ reputation would suggest. And with one muffed punt against Ohio State and a mishandled kickoff already on the ledger, the Longhorns have seen enough shaky moments to know this phase still needs a lot of work.
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