Tyler Keltner proved himself for years at the FCS level with East Tennessee State. Now, after a year at FSU, he aims to do the same and win the starting kicker job at Oklahoma in his final season of eligibility.
NORMAN — Tyler Keltner’s introduction to football came 16 years ago on what was, essentially, a construction site.
Oklahoma’s newest kicker grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, where both of his parents were educators — his mom an elementary school principal, his dad a technology coordinator at a middle school. As construction was wrapping up on Montford Middle School in 2008, Keltner and his father were checking out the new facilities. The buildings weren’t yet finished, but the goalposts on the football field were already installed.
“At the time, I was a soccer player,” Keltner said. “But my dad one day had an idea like, ‘Let’s go try out those new uprights; they’re brand new…. There’s nobody here, so let’s give it a go.’”
Keltner and his father grabbed a football and a circular soccer cone, and thus began Keltner’s path toward kicking — one that took him from Tallahassee to Johnson City, Tennessee, and back to his hometown before arriving in Norman this spring. It’s a stop he hopes isn’t his last, as he eyes an NFL future that he believes Oklahoma can help him achieve.
“It’s tough going in (the transfer portal) knowing that you only have one season left to play, that this is kind of now or never at this point,” Keltner said. “… (Oklahoma) is a platform that can really help me with where I want to go, and it’s also a place where I’m like, ‘Look, I can help this place out too.’ I felt like it was a very mutual decision for OU and for me, and I just think that, overall, I have a lot to bring to this team, and this team has a lot to feed into me.”
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Keltner transferred to Oklahoma this offseason after spending last year at Florida State, the program he grew up watching and cheering for. He’s one of two new kicker additions for the Sooners, who are looking to upgrade the position after struggling to find consistency in the kicking game each of the last two seasons.
