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When will Texas Tech football name a true starting kicker? It might be a while.
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- When will Texas Tech football name a true starting kicker? It might be a while.
Kenny Perry would like to name a true starting place kicker, but the Texas Tech football team's special teams coordinator isn't in a rush to get it done either.
Throughout Perry and head coach Joey McGuire's time in Lubbock, they've been comfortable letting multiple kickers go into the season getting reps, the idea being someone will rise above eventually. Last year, it was Gino Garcia and Reese Burkhardt who split duties. By the end of the year, Garcia was the go-to man.
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Two games into the 2025 season , Stone Harrington and Upton Bellenfant remain locked into their own competition. With the Red Raiders running wild on Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Kent State, the pair have been able to get plenty of point-after kicks in.
"I'm gonna do the same thing we've always done," Perry said Tuesday, "and whoever wins it is gonna have that edge. It could change a couple of times, but it's what we've done. I'm excited for both those guys just making kicks."
Split equally between the two, Harrington is a perfect 8-for-8 on extra points, and Bellenfant is 6-for-7, the miss coming in Week 1. Both are 2-for-2 on their field goal attempts. Both of Bellenfant's field goals have been in the 20-yard range, with Harrington hitting a long of 47 plus one in the 30s.
Bellenfant came in as a transfer from Buffalo, where he was 18-of-21 on field goals and made all 31 of his point-after attempts. Harrington, meanwhile, is in his third year at Texas Tech , handling only some kickoff duties in 2024.
Texas Tech's Stone Harrington kicks a point-after attempt against Arkansas-Pine Bluff during a non-conference football game, Saturday, August 30, 2025, at Jones AT&T Stadium.
"I thought when Stone first got here," Perry said, "when I watched him in high school, he had a really live leg, but he was 175 pounds, now he's 200 pounds, and he's a lot more mature. He knows how to prepare to go in and kick and practice and all the things that come into being a good kicker.
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"If there's anybody that had the opportunity to tuck tail and leave, it was him, because he was behind some good kickers. He just never got a shot. Then this offseason, the same thing we've been doing every year. Those guys are gonna battle out until the other guy falls off."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech football kicker competition undecided with Big 12 play looming
