Punter Devin Bale on scholarship, battle looms for kicking

FAYETTEVILLE — On Tuesday, Sam Pittman confirmed that punter Devin Bale has been awarded a scholarship.

Bale was battling incumbent Max Fletcher for the job in the spring. But following spring drills, Fletched opted to enter the transfer portal and go to Cincinnati where his brother played. Bale is a redshirt junior who transferred to Arkansas from Northern Colorado prior to the 2023 season. He redshirted at Arkansas last season. In 2022 at Northern Colorado, Bale averaged 41.1 yards per punt and also kicked off. He had 32 touchbacks on 41 kickoffs.

“Devin Bale went on scholarship the same day that we had a scholarship available,” Pittman said. “I really have a lot — a lot — of confidence in Devin Bale. We said all last year we had two punters that could punt for most anybody and I really like Devin Bale. He was so grateful when he got the scholarship. As you guys know, I’m not really a flashy guy with that kind of stuff, but he was very happy there. So we were trying to stay status quo with that, so once we had a punter (Fletcher) go into the portal we were ready to go with Devin.”

Gone is Cam Little who is now in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The competition to replace him is between Vito Calvaruso, Matthew Shipley and Kyle Ramsey. Calvaruso and Shipley went through spring drills. Ramsey transferred to Arkansas from Abilene Christian following spring drills. Ramsey was an All-America selection in 2023 after making 14 of 15 field goals and 33 extra points.

“You have three kickers there,” Pittman said. “You’ve got Ramsey and Shipley and Vito. Obviously we went and got Ramsey in the April portal. To me, that’s one of our big we-have-to-find-outs. So we’ve got to put them in some pressure situations. And to be honest with you, we’ve got to put them in the stadium. It’s just different.

“So that’s going to be a battle between those three guys. We need to find out fairly quick. I think we need to find out before school starts — the next two weeks, two-and-a-half weeks — who’s going to be that guy.”

Calvaruso was excellent on kickoffs at Arkansas in 2022 before transferring to Wisconsin. Is he the likely one to kickoff?

“Well, he could,” Pittman said. “He certainly could. Again, that could be a battle as well.”

Pittman said that Scott Fountain isn’t opposed to a different person kickoff off than one doing the placements.

“I think if you ask Scott he would rather it be that way to be perfectly honest with you,” Pittman said. “Cam Little came to me last year and he said, ‘I want to kick off.’ And I said, ‘Well, hell, if you earn it, then you can. I want to do a lot things. I want to lose some weight too. But hell …’ So he went out there and he earned it and did a great job.

“So I don’t have anything against that (having two kickers). Obviously whoever our best guy is, that’s what we’ll do. But, no, I wouldn’t have a problem traveling (two). What you’d like to do is that other guy, if he wins the job (kicking off) he’d at least be your backup field goal kicker.”

Arkansas will open the season on Thursday, Aug. 29, in Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium against UAPB at 6:30 p.m. on ESPNU.