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.

A recent mid-year 2024 industrial property update from Palmer Hays suggests that industrial space is still a growing market in Northwest Arkansas, but recent trends show some cooling.

Hays, an industrial and land specialist with Rogers-based Bennett Commercial Real Estate, notes that construction-related companies are the most active in leasing industrial space in the second quarter of 2024.

“Drywall, plumbing, electrical, audio/visual, smaller trades, you name it … they’re signing leases faster than anyone … they try to keep up with the constant flow of new residents and commercial development projects,” he noted.

He said 51.2% of more than 174,000 square feet of industrial space leases in the second quarter was with construction and real estate tenants.

“I’ve not tracked this stat in the past, but I’d venture to say this [is] higher than average,” he wrote.

Hays’ research indicates that industrial space rent is up 5.9% through the year, lower than the 9.7% rise in 2023 and the 11.1% increase in 2022. He believes rents are trending lower because tenants have “more negotiation power.” Part of that power comes from what Hays suggests is a “hypersupply” of flex space combined with “overzealous asking rents.” The price point fluctuation rarely fails to respond to supply and demand realities.

According to Hays, industrial space vacancy is at 3.7%, up from 2% in 2022 but well below historical averages of 7.5%. However, he thinks the rising vacancy percentage will be a headwind for rent rates.

“I believe rents may become somewhat stagnant for a few years as the existing inventory will take a bit of time to lease up,” Hays noted.

The supply-demand relationship may also be reflected in recent deals. In the past 90 days, industrial space sold had an average per-square-foot value of $111.95, below the $112.83 per square foot in the previous 90-day report.

But on the other hand, as there often is with economic variables, Hays suggests overzealous rents help push prices higher for vacant industrial property.

“End users remain the wild card in the current market, consistently placing the highest bids on vacant properties in recent memory. They recognize the value of controlling their own destiny and prefer to secure their own spaces rather than contend with rising rents,” he said.

Related

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Saturday’s practice for Arkansas was moved back a couple of hours to about 7 p.m. to get a safe window to stay outside. Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman prefers that, probably because it gets to spread everybody out and it is better for conditioning.

For offensive-minded folks, it gives an interesting glimpse to watch new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino and his subtle ways of working with quarterback Taylen Green and the backups. With video being the way everything is broken down these days, he probably doesn’t have to yell as much on the field as he did in histime as head coach from 2008-11.

A lot of people want to see that fire and on-field coaching style the media loves to talk about. With the exception of a normal coaches’ move moving a wide receiver out of a drill that was kinda blown out of proportion, there hasn’t been much to see.

Age also has a little to do with it. Riding around the area around his home in a golf cart with his granddaughter is a side of Petrino most folks couldn’t imagine over a decade ago. On the field, he’s working exclusively with the quarterbacks now and coaching details.

The little nuances he points out to the players in individual drills is interesting. From release point on passes to fine-tuning footwork, he’s working on them being as close to perfect as it can get. It’s probably never perfect, but right now they are doing touch-ups on offensive install and getting the pattern established for the games.

That will start against UAPB at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark., on Aug. 29. The offense will be ready for that game. A guess is it will be a chance to get some final evaluations on players working against somebody other than a teammate before taking the trip to Stillwater, Okla., to play Oklahoma State the second week.

Watching Petrino point out to Green one time he needed to throw the ball in a place he didn’t brought back a back a long-ago memory. The pass Green threw was only off maybe six inches or so.

It was almost like watching Bill Walsh coaching the San Francisco 49ers in 1982 and emphasizing Joe Montana needed to throw a pass exactly 6 inches to one side of a receiver on a route. We found out later from Montana that didn’t mean 5 inches, either, which is what he threw.

“I missed it a little,” Montana said with a smile. “He wants it exact.”

Petrino is probably that way, too. He realizes, of course, most of the time he’s not working with the arm of a Hall of Famer that is as accurate. That doesn’t mean he’s not trying to develop that perfection.

Razorback fans are counting on that offensive magic of 2010-11, which was during a 21-5 run.. The problem is there is no evidence the talent is there right now to do that. This roster isn’t as good as what he had in his first season as the Hogs’ head coach in 2008.

This team may have some folks that develop into that, but nobody knows they are going to be there now. They haven’t shown it in years past and you can’t really gauge practices.

Petrino knows all that. He’s just trying to work with what he’s got and make it the best it can be. In today’s world, nobody knows what’s going to happen with the transfer portal, NIL and the mental state of teenagers these days. Every coach knows they could be developing them for somebody else.

It appears to be a much more relaxed Petrino. We saw that in the spring and now in just four practices of fall camp, it looks to be very detailed instruction for the quarterbacks on little things most folks don’t even think about.

Which was probably what Pittman was thinking when he hired him in December. After last year’s problems and having a coordinator that was obviously distracted by things we may not have even known about, getting some attention to detail may go a long way to at least making a bowl game. Or even better.

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