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What does Reese Burkhardt's spring game mean to Texas Tech football's kicker job?
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- What does Reese Burkhardt's spring game mean to Texas Tech football's kicker job?
Texas Tech football coaches came out of the 2023 season thinking their kicking situation was set for the 2024 season. Maybe they still do, considering Gino Garcia made 16 field goals, including a pressure-packed game-winner , and he hasn't gone anywhere.
Reese Burkhardt gave the Red Raiders something to think about Saturday, though.
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Tech's second-string kicker made a tying 54-yard field goal in the last minute of regulation, then a game-winning 43-yarder in overtime of the spring game in the Sports Performance Center .
"What a problem to have," Tech coach Joey McGuire said. "At the end of the day, you've got to create competition. It's going to be interesting because that is how he's kicked all spring. He's been very, very consistent, and I'm proud of the way he's come back, because in the fall he was our kickoff guy, and he wasn't very consistent at all. He's worked his tail off, so it's going to be interesting going into camp."
McGuire said he can't preach to players about generating competition and then ignore when someone provides it.
Burkhardt, from Andalusia, Alabama, will be a fifth-year senior in the fall. Garcia, from Richardson Pearce, will be a sixth-year senior.
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Burkhardt's spent his entire college career — three years at Alabama-Birmingham, last season at Tech — as a kickoff specialist. On fall Saturdays, he's kicked off 214 times, but never attempted a field goal.
Garcia, on the other hand, is 48 of 69 on field goals in three years at Houston Baptist and the past two with the Red Raiders. Garcia made 15 of his last 18, including a 30-yarder with three seconds left to lift Tech to a 16-13 victory on Nov. 11 at Kansas .
"Gino always makes you feel good," McGuire said, "because he's done it in games. So it's a competition, and if that means we take that competition into fall camp, then we're going to take that competition into fall camp."
More: Will Texas Tech football's Cameron Dickey redshirt in '24? Joey McGuire weighs in
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Can Reese Burkhardt turn strong spring into bigger role?
