Jeff Banks grabs known commodities for the 2026 season

Would you rather have knowns or unknowns? Jeff Banks prefers the former.

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Banks signed three specialists yesterday, Memphis kicker Gianni Spetic, Florida State punter Mac Chiumento, and New Mexico long snapper Trey Dubuc within the span of about 2.5 hours yesterday, locking up his special teams triumvirate for 2026.

With the staff looking to make the most of their 2026 season with Arch Manning at quarterback, Banks and Steve Sarkisian are looking to leave nothing to chance.

If they had relied on…

• Freshman punter Mikey Bukauskas or someone from the walk-on ranks
• Freshman kicker Jake Collett or walk-on kicker Spencer Barnett
• Freshman long snapper Trott O’Neal or walk-on long snapper Tate Haver…

…that would have left a lot of room for unknowns, no?

Can Bukauskas handle a punt from his own end zone against a top-10 team?

Can Collett or Barnett convert the drives Manning and the offense can’t?

Could O’Neal or Haver operate in relative anonymity like Texas deep snappers of the past decade?

Banks and Sarkisian didn’t want to leave any of that to chance. Instead, they have several years of data to know what Spetic, Chiumento, and Dubuc can do.

Spetic, who started his career at Ohio and has one year of eligibility remaining, is 46-of-62 in his career on field goals and 129-for-131 on point after attempts. His career long is 55. He’s 5-of-9 from 50+ and 7-of-15 from 40-49, a mark dragged down by a 1-for-5 freshman season with Ohio from 40-49.

However, last year he was 3-for-6 from 40-49 and 4-for-5 from 50+, showing development in his ability to hit longer field goals. Plus, Memphis trusted him with 11 attempts of 40 or longer whereas at Ohio he had 13 across two entire seasons as the kicker.

What’s the known? Spetic is a quality kicker who won’t often put points at risk for drive that finish inside the opponents 25. While he’s developed as a longer distance kicker, it’s a development and not a known commodity like it is for some in college football and in the NFL. That’s probably okay considering how often Sarkisian elects to go for it on fourth down anyway.

Chiumento, who has one year of eligibility remaining, was Florida State’s primary punter in 2025. He had 27 punts and averaged 44.0 yards per attempt. His net according to Pro Football Focus was 41.0 per kick. Texas’ net punting was No. 93 in the nation at 38.2. PFF gave him a hangtime average of 4.16. Sixteen of Chiumento’s 28 punts were not returned, meaning he either gives the hangtime needed for the coverage team to make it downfield or he is able to direct his kicks in a way to where the returner doesn’t see the value of trying to field the ball.

DuBuc, who started his career at USF, has two years of eligibility remaining. He was the No. 12 snapper in the 2023 class according to Rubio Long Snapping. He played in all 13 games for the Lobos in 2025 with two tackles. His season-long PFF grade was 72.7, but there are no instances of glaring red on his game log. Texas saw 97 snaps worth of data in-game to know what’s on its way.

Developing high school talent at every position is important. And high school talent can develop and thrive at Texas even in the specialists group. However, true freshmen present unknown unknowns. Texas didn’t leave that to chance in 2026 with the ability to grab known commodities from the portal whose strengths and faults have been made clear on the field of play.