P Michael Kern commits to Texas

After extending two offers to punters last week, Texas Longhorns special teams coordinator Jeff Banks landed a commitment from Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas product Michael Kern on Tuesday.

According to Kohl’s Professional Camps, the 6’3, 170-pounder is ranked as the No. 4 punter and the No. 48 kicker in the country. Kern also held an offer from Army and took recent visits to Auburn, Boston College, South Florida, Duke, and Kentucky.

Kohl’s provided the following evaluation on Kern:

Kern competed at the Underclassman Challenge in January of 2023. His frame and “A” ball make him the most exciting prospect in the 2024 class. His short compact approach should allow him to continue to develop as a punter in the years to come. Kern scored 104.85 points on his punt charts and he also has the ability to kick off down the road as well. His first Kohl’s ranking event was the 2022 Kohl’s National Scholarship Camp. He scored 18 points during the field goal charting sessions, finished with an average score during kickoffs of 102.53 over the weekend and had an average hang time during the punt charting of 4.10 seconds over all three sessions. Kern has the ability to be one of the top combo prospects in his class and should be in for some exciting moments ahead in his career!

Kern is the first scholarship punter to commit to Texas since Banks joined the staff following the hire of head coach Steve Sarkisian in 2021. With Stanford transfer Ryan Sanborn only having one year of eligibility, Kern could serve as the long-term solution at the position after Sanborn exhausts his college eligibility.