FAYETTEVILLE — Cam Little’s decision to skip his senior season at Arkansas and enter the NFL Draft worked out well for the most accurate kicker in Razorback history.
The Jacksonville Jaguars picked Little in the sixth round and now he’s won the starting job and signed a four-year contract worth $4.158 million.
So how do the Razorbacks replace a kicker who hit 53 of 64 field goal attempts (82.8%) and made all 129 extra points?
Special teams coordinator Scott Fountain is working on it.
“I think it’s going to be a great competition,” Fountain said. “And we’ll see how it plays out over the next two weeks.”
Transfers Matthew Shipley and Kyle Ramsey are competing to be the kicker along with Vito Calvaruso, the top candidate to handle kickoffs as he did previously at Arkansas before a detour to Wisconsin.
Shipley, a fifth-year senior, signed in December after making 56 of 73 field goals (76.7%) in 48 games at Hawaii.
In Shipley’s last game he hit a 51-yard field goal as time expired against Colorado State to lift Hawaii to a 27-24 victory.
As a junior, when Shipley made 16 of 20 field goal attempts, he had a 63-yarder against Wyoming.
Sounds like a pretty good replacement for Little. Except Shipley struggled last spring at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, as did Calvaruso.
Shipley and Calvaruso both hit 2 of 4 attempts in the Red-White game. Shipley hit from 40 and 33 yards and missed from 45 and 40. Calvaruso hit from 45 and 33 yards and missed twice from 40.
Fountain said they also were hit-and-miss kicking in the stadium in another spring scrimmage, but did well otherwise.
“I really like Shipley, and Vito had a good spring, it’s just when we got in the stadium,” Fountain said. “We try to grade them three ways. One is when nobody is around, just called charting. Nobody but me, just me yelling at them a little bit and then we have live. With live, we have a rush and then we have scrimmages.
“They were pretty dang good in live and just charting with nobody watching, but in the stadium is what concerned us. They were 50% in the spring.”
To add more competition, the sixth-year senior Ramsey transferred from Abilene Christian, where last season he hit 14 of 15 field goals and was 4 of 5 from 50 or more yards with a long of 55.
Ramsey also played four seasons at Houston, where he primarily handled kickoffs.
“Really excited about him,” Fountain said. “Great kid, already graduated with an engineering degree. Had a good summer.”
Fountain said Shipley has responded well to Ramsey’s addition.
“I’ll tell you, Matthew is a phenomenal kid,” Fountain said. “Just very well-centered, comes from a great home and to be honest with you, he’s never said one word about it.
“He just has to work and do better. That was the one thing I was attracted to with him was his personality.”
Devin Bale, a junior and Arkansas’ No. 1 punter with Max Fletcher’s transfer to Cincinnati, has worked with all of the kickers in practice as a holder.
“Everyone’s competing really well,” Bale said. “It’s really hard to tell who’s going to win the job. Anyone could.
“They all have great mindsets, they all have really strong legs and they’re charting pretty similarly. So it’s really hard to tell, but it’s a good, healthy competition.
“They’re all friends too, so that’s good. They all get along.”
Bale redshirted last year after transferring from Northern Colorado, where he averaged 41.2 yards as a punter for two seasons and also handled kickoffs as a sophomore.
“It was hard,” Bale said of sitting out. “It was also a really good learning experience. I got to compete with Max, who is a great punter and one of my really good friends.
“We competed hard. We learned from each other. I learned a lot from him. It was really awesome to sit back and take in the whole environment and learn from it.”
Bale transferred after Coach Ed McCaffrey was fired at Northern Colorado.
“I had dreams and aspirations to go to a bigger school,” Bale said. “After my head coach got fired, I just knew it was time. I took my chances.
“Coach Fountain wanted me to come out and visit, and I visited and fell in love with it here.”
Bale was put on scholarship after Fletcher’s transfer, solidifying his hold on the punting job.
Junior Eli Stein is back for his third season as the long snapper, junior Isaiah Sategna is back to return kickoffs and punts and Calvaruso should be ready to resume kickoff duties.
Calvaruso, a fifth-year senior, had 63 touchbacks on 74 kickoffs in 2021 before transferring to Wisconsin. He then went back to Arkansas and sat out last season because of multiple transfer rules.
The only job that looks to be up for grabs is placekicker, a critical role for any SEC team with so many close games in conference play.
The Razorbacks’ scrimmage Thursday inside the stadium figures to be big for the kickers. There also will be a scrimmage on Thursday next week.
Arkansas is scrimmaging on Thursday because its opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff is on Aug. 29 — the Thursday night leading into Labor Day weekend.
Fountain said in practice the kickers have been working with different holders and snappers.
“We’re going to see how that plays out, and then we’ll go to the scrimmage,” Fountain said. “So that’s the tough part right now, but if a guy can continue to make it with a different holder and snapper, it makes you feel better about him.
“We’re going through that process. As we get closer and it kind of starts showing its face, then we’ll start narrowing it down for those guys.
“But we’re giving them every opportunity to be the guy for the next two weeks.”
Arkansas special teams
Returning starters: KOR/PR Isaiah Sategna, LS Eli Stein
Key losses: K Cam Little, P Max Fletcher
Who’s back? P Devin Bale, K Vito Calvaruso, LS Ashton Ngo, LS Max Schmidly
Who’s new? K Matthew Shipley, K Kyle Ramsey, P Sam Dubwig, K Charlie Van Der Meden
What to know: Shipley and Ramsey, both transfers, are the top candidates to replace Little, who is now an NFL rookie with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Finding a consistent kicker to replace Little — who hit 53 of 64 field goal attempts — is critical because the Razorbacks figure to be in a lot of close games. Bale, who redshirted last year after averaging 41.2 yards on 103 punts in two seasons at Northern Colorado, is ready to take over for Fletcher. Stein is going into his third season as the long snapper. Sategna is a dangerous returner on kickoffs and punts. Calvaruso, in his second stint at Arkansas after returning from Wisconsin, likely will handle kickoffs.