No. 2 P Mikey Bukauskas commits to Texas

The Longhorns have landed a fifth commitment coming out of the first summer official visit weekend.

With the expectation of increased scholarship numbers in college football, the Texas Longhorns are ensuring that they won’t be short on specialists, landing a commitment from Proper punter Mikey Bukauskas on Tuesday after flipping 2025 punter Gehrig Heil from the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs last week.

Now the 13th pledge in the 2026 class for head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff, Bukauskas is the fifth recruit to commit coming out of the first summer official visit weekend as the Longhorns begin to gain some significant momentum on the recruiting trail.

Bukauskas also held offers from Clemson, North Texas, SMU, Southern Miss, and UConn. A 6’3, 205-pounder, Bukauskas is ranked as the No. 2 punter nationally by 247Sports and Kohl’s Kicking, which provided the following evaluation of the Prosper product, who could also handle kickoffs at Texas:

Bukauskas dominated at the 2025 Kohl’s Texas Spring Showcase. He produced one of the top chart sessions nationwide this spring. His overall score on punts was 120.38 points which includes a big ball of 60 yards with 5.18 seconds of hang time. He also scored 117.60 points in the kickoff portion of camp. He has Power 4 frame and leg strength. One of the top Punt/KO guys in his class. Bukauskas competed at the 2024 Kohl’s Western Winter Showcase. He has continued to refine his ball striking and he had another strong showing at the event. He competed in all three disciplines and produced some excellent charts at camp. He scored 14 points in the field goal charting and scored 104.20 points in the kickoff portion of camp. His overall punt score at camp was 100.79 points and he connected with a big ball of 55 yards with 4.50 seconds of hang time. Bukauskas competed at the Fall Ranking Event in Oct of 2024 and put on a show. His kickoff score of 114.45 and punt score of 115.95 were at the D1 level. He also scored 11/15 points on field goals. Bukauskas also attended Kohl’s National Scholarship Camp in July of 2024. He scored 98.30 points in punting, 16/36 points on field goals, and 102.70 points on kick-offs. He has a D1 frame and potential.

Texas has now landed commitments from a deep snapper and a kicker in the 2025 cycle, but taking scholarship punters in back-to-back classes is particularly notable because the Longhorns have had two seasons under Sarkisian and special teams coordinator Jeff Banks — 2022 and 2024 in which the team received subpar punting because the scholarship punter was ineffective.

In a future with less restrictive scholarship limits, that should never happen again, and the staff seems intent on ensuring that it won’t.