Texas Now Has a Major New Weapon On Special Teams

Bouwmeester Talks Putting on a Longhorn Uniform for the first time

The Bendigo, Australia native began his college career up in East Lansing, Michigan, committing to the Michigan State Spartans for his freshman year.

After not seeing any playing time his first year, Bouwmeester decided to hit the transfer portal and found a spot on the Utah Utes, where he played for two seasons, earning All-Conference honors in his two seasons in Utah. And now for his senior season, Bouwmeester joined the Longhorns during the spring transfer window. At a media availability earlier this week, the new Longhorns punter spoke about his initial reaction to putting on a Longhorn uniform.

"It's been a whirlwind," Bouwmeester said. "When I first got here and put on the Longhorn logo, I just had to pinch myself a little bit. I can show people from back home that logo and they know exactly what it means, so coming to this kind of program and just experiencing everything and going through it all with all the guys, it's been awesome."

Bouwmeester helps one of the Longhorns' struggles from a Season Ago

The Longhorns had one of the best teams in the country a season ago, but one of the struggles that Texas had was its special teams in both the kicking and punting games. The Longhorns' punting unit struggled at times throughout the season, utilizing two different punters in 2024.

The unit combined for 52 punts, which traveled an average distance of 40.78 yards, with the longest punt being at 57 yards. The Longhorns' punters also pinned opponents inside the 20-yard line just 11 times, the entire season, while having a net average of 35.88 yards.

In his one-game sample size with the Longhorns, Bouwmeester has exceeded or gotten close to what the punters did for Texas a season ago, and with an entire season left in front of him, Bouwmeester should best just about every punting statistic from a season ago.