The Arkansas special teams unit has been a bit of a mystery over the last decade. During the early 2010s, fans grew accustomed to having game-changing players like Joe Adams or Dennis Johnson returning punts or kicks while having a reliable kicker like Zach Hocker.
Unfortunately, in recent years it’s been far from what it once was. The Arkansas special teams unit has lacked dynamic playmakers at those positions and consistently fails to execute in that phase of the game.
That has to change in 2023 and if you ask Razorback special teams coach Scott Fountain, the pieces are there to make it happen.
“We certainly have more talent than we’ve ever had on the team since I’ve been here,” said Fountain, speaking to the media on Sunday morning. “In the past we’ve pieced things together at times, and this year I feel like we really got some good players.”
[autotag]Bryce Stephens[/autotag] is back and will most likely handle the punt return responsibilities after a solid 2022 season. Stephens finished with 149 return yards and one touchdown – the one touchdown being the incredible 82-yard punt return against Missouri State.
On the very DAY Joe Adams goes into the Razorback Hall of Honor, Bryce Stephens has his own punt return moment at DWRRS. pic.twitter.com/3HgSelJrOh
— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) September 18, 2022
“I feel like punt return, leaving spring, obviously we’ve got Bryce Stephens,” Fountain said. “Jaylon Braxton is a freshman. I really like him. He’s a very fast kid. A bigger kid. Also, [autotag]Isaiah Sategna[/autotag] as well. I think all three of those guys have a chance for us back there. We’ll just see how it plays out.”
On kick returns, Fountain expects AJ Green to handle those duties, as he did in 2022, but we could see Sategna take on some of that responsibility.
“If you move over to the kick return spot, obviously, we have AJ (Green) back, but I really like Isaiah Sategna, as well,” Fountain said. “He was a very good returner in high school.”
“We’ve done a lot of studying on KOR this offseason, and we’d like to be more productive there with the opportunities we get. We’d like to take a few more opportunities than what we have done in the past. You can sit back there and fair catch them all day with that rule, but we feel like we have some guys that have a chance to change the game.”
On the flip side of that, Cam Little is back to handle field goal duties. After earning Freshman All-SEC honors in 2021, he went 13-16 on field goals and was perfect on extra points in 2022. One of those three missed field goals was a potential game-winner against Texas A&M. However, Little bounced back following that miss and Fountain took notice
“What I like about Cam is last year we missed the field goal down at Texas A&M and he came right back and made six or seven field goals in a row,” said Fountain. “That’s what he brings to the table. He’s a very strong-minded young man.”
Cam Little kicked the game-winning FG in OT and hit the griddy in Baton Rouge 😳
The Boot belongs to @RazorbackFB ‼️ pic.twitter.com/rKOivSRDqs
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 14, 2021
We could see Little handle the kickoff responsibilities as he’s in a battle with Devin Bale and Blake Ford for that job.
The only other question on special teams is at punter. Sophomore Max Fletcher will be the punter after having a very tough freshman season. Fountain says that he’s very happy with the progress Fletcher has made over the summer.
“He had a really good spring and really good summer. We do a lot of charting in the summer as well, and I was really proud of him there,” Fountain said. “Today was our first day to punt live. I think out of his three punts, he hit what I’d call an A-ball. The second was a B-ball. So, two of the three were pretty decent balls. I think he’s headed in the right direction.”
For the Razorbacks to take another step forward as a team this season, the special teams will need to execute at a much higher level. Things look to be headed in that direction, but we will find out firsthand on Sept. 2 when the open the season against Western Carolina.
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