Razorback Roster Rundown: Punters, Kickers, Long Snappers

This article is part of a series previewing the Razorbacks’ 2020 football roster.

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Punters

Among the three specialist positions, Arkansas has the most experience at punter, with three players on the roster who have punted in college.

Sam Loy was the primary punter in 2019, averaging 39.5 yards on 56 punts, with 19 pinned inside the 20-yard line. His biggest strength was not necessarily distance, though.

Instead, he boomed punts high into the air and averaged 4.24 seconds of hang time, according to Pro Football Focus. That was tied for second in the SEC and tied for fifth among all Power Five punters with at least 10 punts. The result was opponents returning only six punts - tied for the second fewest in the country - for an average of 4.5 yards, which ranked 20th nationally.

There was a point in the season when Loy struggled, though, and Reid Bauer got some action. He averaged just 36.7 yards and 3.86 seconds of hang time on his three punts. That was a drop off from his 2018 season, when he averaged 38.9 yards and 3.91 seconds as the Razorbacks’ primary punter.

Matthew Phillips - who is also a kicker - is the only other player with college punting experience, averaging 38.0 yards on four punts in 2018. The fourth punter on the roster, George Caratan, did not get any game action in two seasons at Michigan.

Kickers

The most accurate kicker in UA history, Connor Limpert graduated after last season, leaving a pretty large hole to fill at a critical position. The new coaching staff addressed that by bringing in AJ Reed, a graduate transfer from Duke.

Despite joining the Blue Devils as a scholarship player in 2016, Reed struggled mightily, missing an extra point and making just 3 of 10 field goals. Injuries forced him to redshirt the following season and then he was used only on kickoffs in 2018.

Finally, last season, Reed lived up to the expectations he had since high school and became one of the top kickers in the ACC. He made 15 of 18 field goals (83.3 percent) and was perfect on 34 extra points.

As mentioned above, Phillips has also been a kicker at Arkansas, but never in a game. The only other player listed as a kicker on the roster is incoming freshman Vito Calvaruso.

Long Snappers

After redshirting he his first season, Jordan Silver has been the Razorbacks’ primary long snapper each of the last two seasons and was placed on scholarship last August.

He handled all but 12 field goal/extra point snaps early in his redshirt freshman season and then did all of them last season. He’s been the snapper on every punt both years. That comes out to 222 total snaps and Pro Football Focus has given him grades of 76.2 and 73.6.

Silver’s backup last season was John Oehrlein, but he never appeared in a game. The Razorbacks have since added two more long snappers to the roster: incoming freshman Eli Chism and graduate transfer HT Fountain.

Fountain spent the last four years at Lindsey Wilson College, an NAIA school in Kentucky. He was a two-year starter at long snapper.

Holder

He’s a quarterback who we wrote about earlier in this series, but Jack Lindsey has also been Arkansas’ holder for field goals and extra points the last two seasons. That has led to him playing 99 special teams snaps during his career.

Punters

With several options at the position, this will be a position battle worth watching in fall camp. Loy seems to be the best option because he actually punted pretty well most of last season and his hang time can be a weapon.

However, there is an entirely new coaching staff now, including special teams coordinator Scott Fountain. The only punter he brought in this offseason was Caratan, so perhaps he gets a shot at the starting job.

If Loy or Bauer separates himself as the starter, he’d be a prime candidate to receive a scholarship, as Arkansas will need to fill a few spots before the season, much like last year. As a senior, Loy makes the most sense from that perspective.

In order to remain eligible to play this season, though, Caratan can’t be awarded a scholarship. It’s much like the situation with Loy transferring from Colorado last season.

Kickers

Being brought in as a graduate transfer and coming off an excellent season at Duke, Reed is a virtual lock to be the starting placekicker.

Where there could potentially be some competition, though, is on kickoffs. According to Kohl’s Kicking, Calvaruso has a strong leg and excels at kickoffs, as evidenced by 80 percent of his kickoffs resulting in touchbacks over his last two years of high school.

That might be a good situation for the Razorbacks, as it keeps Reed fresh for field goals and gives the true freshman some game experience in case he’s the kicker of the future at Arkansas.

Calvaruso could also travel and serve as the backup punter - which is what Phillips did last season - or the coaching staff could decide to redshirt him and allow Phillips to be the backup again.

Long Snappers

Considering he’s on scholarship and has snapped well the last two years, Silver will almost certainly be the starting long snapper again in 2020.

What will be interesting to watch is the battle to be his backup. Fountain has college experience, granted it’s at the NAIA level, but he also has only one year of eligibility remaining.

Oehrlein and Chism could potentially be the snappers of the future, but Silver does have two years of eligibility left. Will Fountain go with Chism, the guy he brought in, or stick with Oehrlein?

Holder

Expect Lindsey to remain the holder. As a quarterback, there is always the possibility of a trick play, or he could potentially make something happen in case of a bad snap.

Punters

When he was coming out of Santa Margarita Catholic High in California, Loy turned down scholarship offers from the three service academies - Army, Navy and Air Force - to go to Vanderbilt. He spent a couple of seasons there before transferring to Colorado, where he had to redshirt. Following that redshirt season, Loy transferred to Arkansas and was immediately eligible to play because he was a non-scholarship player.

Bauer was a preferred walk-on in the Razorbacks’ 2018 class. He also received interest from Michigan and Texas State. Similarly, Caratan was a preferred walk-on in Michigan’s 2018 class after also receiving interest from Penn State and Maryland. When he decided to transfer, he picked Arkansas over Missouri as his landing spot.

Kickers

As mentioned above, Reed committed to Duke as a scholarship player in 2016. An Alabama native, he also had preferred walk-on opportunities at Alabama and Mississippi State, plus several other schools were interested.

Calvaruso was a highly touted kicker coming out of Helias High in Jefferson City, Mo., with scholarship offers from Army and Southeast Missouri State, an FCS program. However, he also had several preferred walk-on opportunities, choosing the one from Arkansas over Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Iowa State and Memphis.

Despite being a Tennessee native with scholarship offers from Army and a pair of FCS schools (Austin Peay and Indiana State), Bauer’s parents graduate from Arkansas and he grew up cheering for the Razorbacks, so he took a preferred walk-on opportunity. Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee offered him as a walk-on, as well.

Long Snappers

Considering his dad used to be a wrestler there, Oklahoma State appeared to be the front runner for Silver, but he ended up accepting a preferred walk-on offer from Arkansas. He also had interest from Oklahoma and Baylor.

Of the other three long snappers, Chism probably had the most interesting recruitment. He actually committed to Kansas originally, but quickly flipped to Arkansas a few days later after receiving a preferred walk-on offer.

MORE: Razorback Roster Rundown