Talented kicker enters transfer portal

Not a subscriber? Subscribe for free for 30 days w/code HAWGS30
NEW USERS | RETURNING USERS

FAYETTEVILLE — Jared Sackett’s career at Arkansas is over before he ever officially suited up for a game.

A year after joining the Razorbacks as a transfer from UTSA, the walk-on kicker has once again entered the NCAA transfer portal.

Although the Roadrunners won just nine total games during his two years in San Antonio, Sackett was a bright spot. He was one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Award - which goes to the top kicker in the country - each of those two seasons, as he made 33 of 41 field goals and 41 of 42 extra points.

NCAA transfer rules forced him to redshirt this season with the Razorbacks, but that was okay because they had the most accurate kicker in school history returning. With Connor Limpert graduated, though, Sackett was expected to be the frontrunner to win the starting job in 2020.

However, the coaching change and the addition of Rhett Thurman and Vito Calvaruso as preferred walk-ons have apparently led to him looking elsewhere.

Thurman is an in-state kicker from Cabot with a five-star rating from Chris Sailer Kicking - meaning he’s a Division I-level prospect - who turned down a scholarship offer from UCA and is an early enrollee, while Calvaruso is a five-star recruit, according to Kohl’s Kicking, from Missouri who turned down scholarship offers from Army and Southeast Missouri State and will join the team this summer.

Matthew Phillips, who is also a punter and backed up Limpert last season, will also compete for the job as a redshirt sophomore.

Because Sackett was a preferred walk-on, his departure does not impact the Razorbacks’ projected scholarship distribution for 2020.