He set records at TCU but walked away from a career in the NFL. He couldn’t be happier
Former TCU kicker Jaden Oberkrom, after a stellar four-year collegiate career from 2012 to 2015 that saw him set TCU records in field goals made (79) and total points (451), walked away from an NFL contract with the Cleveland Browns.
Oberkrom, the all-time Big 12 Conference field goal leader, started a new business he was more passionate about: training the next generation of kickers and punters.
The Star-Telegram caught up with Oberkrom for a Q&A and discussed football, the state of kicking, family, faith and more.
Star-Telegram: You chose to walk away from the NFL to start your kicking business. Do you ever have regrets about that?
I’ve never had a regret about it. When I was in the NFL, every minute felt like an hour. When I’m training kids, every hour feels like a minute. This is where I’m supposed to be right now in this phase of life. There are some things I miss about kicking, like the pressure and the team aspect of it. But I don’t regret hanging it up.
Star-Telegram: What would you say is most important in your life now?
Oberkrom: The most important thing in my life is my faith. The business, our time, our lives, my marriage — it revolves around the church and our faith.
Star-Telegram: How is your family and business life? What else are you up to these days?
Oberkrom: For family — it’s just me and my wife. We met in high school. We went to TCU together. She followed me there. She won’t tell you that, but she did, so it’s still us and just us right now. And business — Obviously, when I started (training kickers) eight and a half years ago, I had zero kids, zero fields and almost zero money. Now, we have 200 kids probably. Four fields. It has blown up, and it’s been great. I get to meet a lot of kids and a lot of parents. It’s a family business.
Star-Telegram: What are the most important things you want young kickers to understand?
Oberkrom: Number one: It’s not all about kicking. I think that takes the pressure off of it too. Like, if you find your purpose in kicking. Whenever you miss one, and you’re going to miss one it just puts on so much more pressure if you don’t have a purpose. You almost feel defeated.
Also, you should be using kicking as a tool to grow. It’s cool because it’s a process. It’s not like you could go out there and after a month, you’re going to be kicking for a D1 football program. And it takes years and years of dedication, eating the right stuff, doing the right workouts, and kicking on your own. And over time, it just compounds. And the next thing you know, you’re a D1, and before, you couldn’t even make a 30-yard field goal. So then it just teaches kids delayed gratification, which is very, very rare in today’s culture. And I think it shows them that their purpose is not tied to a kick.
Star-Telegram: Do you hope to train the kicker that breaks all your TCU records? How do you feel about kids you’ve trained going to play for TCU and extending your legacy in a way?
Oberkrom: I want them to break every single one. So I trained Griffin. I think he tied the longest field goal in TCU history with me and one other guy. And, man, I remember while I was watching it live. My heart was going crazy, like I did. I wanted him to make it so bad.
And also Kyle (Lemmermann). He is going to be really, really good. I’ve been around him since he was in seventh grade. I told him we went to a signing day at Southlake Carroll when he signed up with TCU. And I said, ‘Hey, man, I hope you break all of my records except one. Just leave me one.’
Star-Telegram: What do you think of Lemmermann having so much responsibility as a true freshman with TCU?
Oberkrom: It’s good for him because you’re not going to get the best out of a kid freshman year, especially a kid like that. He is going to grow so much from year to year. I did the same if you look at my stats. The best year, statwise, for me, was my senior year.
So just getting games, kicks and big kicks under your belt early, it’s just gonna develop him over the years. Obviously we’re not seeing the best of Kyle. Kyle was really good, though. I think two or three years from now, we’re going to see a really, really good Kyle (Lemmermann).
Star-Telegram: How did playing under Gary Patterson shape you as a player?
Oberkrom: I think Gary was good. Off the field. He was, he was very outgoing, charismatic, and would talk to you one-on-one very calmly. On the field, he would fire up and change personalities. To me personally, I liked that. When we messed up as specialists, we would get screamed at, and when we did our job, he wouldn’t say a word.
And so for me, that is the way I like to be coached. When I do my job, just leave me alone. You don’t need to hype me up. I know I did well, and then when I mess up, you need to call me out on it. And that was his old-school philosophy. And I don’t think that that old-school coaching will ever completely go away. I loved it.
Star-Telegram: How do you think the kicking landscape has changed in the last 10 years?
Oberkrom: Just like any sport, the margins are smaller. It’s more competitive. The miss hits are better in general and straighter.
We have a lot of science and technology with kicking now with Trackman. Trackman is basically a radar that senses how fast a football spins, how far it goes, ball speed, launch angle and more. We’ve been seeing all these things come together and kids start training at earlier ages.
I remember when I first started training kickers, my youngest kid was probably seventh grade. And now, I have to train with smaller footballs because the kids are in third, fourth, fifth and sixth grade. So, they’re starting younger and getting stronger. And then you have the science behind the technique and data. So, that’s why you’ll see the numbers go up.
Right now, we train about two top 10 guys in the nation in every class. I’m hoping to keep that rate. And we’ve got some younger kids too, sixth or seventh graders, that can hit 40-yard field goals.
Star-Telegram: Why do kickers fly under the radar compared to other positions when it comes to recruiting?
Oberkrom: The kickers often get recruited last. They are last on the totem pole, which, to me, doesn’t make sense, because we score the most points on any college football team. So, kicking is a big deal and it wins and loses games.
With NIL, the transfer portal, and the new JUCO deal, it becomes a little bit harder for high school guys to get out and get a chance. So, if you’re a college coach and you’re making a lot of money being a special teams coordinator, are you going to offer an 18-year-old out of high school? Or are you going to take a 21-year-old transfer who has three years of college football left?
So, it’s making it hard to take high school kids. They’re still signing, but the margins are smaller, and you’re competing with the transfer portal. And you know, people are getting into the portal for the wrong reasons.
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 5:50 AM.
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