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Arkansas is at a historic low point. Coming off back-to-back 2-10 seasons, the Razorbacks have a new head coach after firing Chad Morris just 22 games into his disastrous tenure in Fayetteville.
They replaced him with a familiar name, but one who hasn’t been a head coach since leading a junior college team in the early 1990s and hasn’t even been a coordinator at the FBS level. Sam Pittman does have a reputation as an excellent recruiter and developer of offensive linemen, giving the Arkansas fan base at least some hope that he’ll be able to stabilize the program.
As if that wasn’t already a big enough challenge, Pittman is dealing with unprecedented circumstances during his first offseason. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, he and his almost entirely new staff lost all of spring practice, as well as a chunk of offseason conditioning.
The team reconvened in Fayetteville in June to begin working out and has been doing walk-through practices with the coaching staff on the field for a couple of weeks. Despite uncertainty swirling about the season, which is scheduled to start Sept. 26, Arkansas is still set to begin fall camp Monday.
Over the last few weeks, HawgBeat has been previewing each of the Razorbacks’ position groups, breaking down the returning players and additions, providing the top storylines, and projecting a depth chart ahead of this critical stretch.
We conclude our series with the special teams…
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NEW USERS | RETURNING USERS
The Roster
Returning players: *P Sam Loy (r-sr.), *H Jack Lindsey (r-sr. - also a QB), *LS Jordan Silver (r-jr.), P Reid Bauer (r-so.), K/P Matthew Phillips (r-so.), LS John Oehrlein (r-fr.)
Additions: *K A.J. Reed (r-sr. - grad. transfer), LS H.T. Fountain (sr. - grad. transfer), P George Caratan (r-so. - transfer), K Vito Calvaruso (fr.), LS Eli Chism (fr.)
*on scholarship
The Starters
Among the four specialists - kicker, punter, long snapper and holder - it seems as though three are pretty locked in with a clear starter.
The most obvious, partly because it’s the most visible spot in the group, is A.J. Reed at kicker. The Razorbacks brought him in as a graduate transfer from Duke and gave him a scholarship. Last season, he made 15 of 18 field goals - including a pair of 50-yarders - and now he’s on the Lou Groza Award watch list.
