Arkansas' 10 most important players in 2022-23: No. 8 - Cam Little
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Having a consistent and reliable kicker is not always a guarantee, but the Hogs have that guarantee in Cam Little.
Ever since the Sam Pittman regime took over, special teams — coordinated by Scott Fountain — has been a focal point not just in recruiting, but during the season. The Hogs have gone out and recruited big-time guys and it has paid off in Little.
As a freshman in 2021, Little was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team and earned Freshman All-America honors from The Athletic, the Football Writers Association of America and Pro Football Focus and The Athletic.
Little was 20-24 on field goal attempts, and his 20 makes were the third most in a single season in program history. His success rate of 83.3 percent was fifth most in school history and the best by a Razorback kicker since the 2013 season.
“I don’t really question whether he’s going to make a field goal or not,” Pittman said on December 14. “I know he hasn’t made them all, but he made almost all of them, especially in key moments. He’s a really good pressure guy, under pressure.”
On three separate occasions, Little drilled at least three field goals in a single game, and he hit a career-long 51-yarder against Mississippi State.
He nailed the game-winner in overtime against LSU to help bring the Golden Boot back to Fayetteville on Nov. 13. After that game, Pittman said it is a luxury to have a kicker that you can trust in clutch situations like that.
"I told (Kendal Briles) we were going to run it twice to center it, and if we didn't make a first down Cam was going to go win the game,” Pittman said after the 16-13 win over LSU. “That's exactly what happened. How nice is it to have a kicker that you know if you put it in the middle of the field he's going to make it? It doesn't matter what the pressure is."
Little earned SEC Special Teams Player of the Week honors after the LSU win, and he also earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors after going 4-4 against Texas and 3-4 against Mississippi State.
Not only was Little money when trying to put three points on the board, he was perfect on extra point attempts. He attempted 46 PATs and made every single one of them.
Coming out of Southmoore High School in Moore, Oklahoma, Little was rated as a 5.5 three-star by Rivals. He was the No. 4 kicker in the 2021 class according to Rivals, and was selected as an Adidas All-American and named to the Under Armour All-American Game roster.
Teams do not always have a scholarship kicker, but Pittman and his staff thought it was important to have a good enough guy to give a scholarship to.
“Out of high school, those guys that get scholarships, we’re not the only team that offers them, you know those guys that are the elite-elite,” Pittman said. “If you look back at our field goal unit from my first year here to (last) year, it’s quite different. I think there’s probably two to three, maybe more, games difference in Cam and that unit making those field goals had in winning and losing. So, we save normally three scholarships for specialists and it’s paying off for us.”
The importance of having a reliable kicker cannot be overstated. A good kicker can change the way a game is called, and we saw at times last year that the Hogs tried to be a little more aggressive because they knew they had a good shot at points with Little kicking.