Scott Fountain talks kickers, Cam Little

FAYETTEVILLE — Scott Fountain is the coordinator for Arkansas’ special teams and he had a surprising opening come up at kicker following the 2023 season.

Fountain appeared to have everything lined up in that area with Cam Little set for his senior season in 2024 and a verbal commitment from Evan Noel, rated the top kicker in the nation in Class of 2025. But then a meeting with Little took place and everything changed.

“Cam came into my office after the season and said, ‘Hey, I think I want to go be a pro,'” Fountain said. “He said, ‘Coach, I just want to go be a pro.’ On my end, I felt like if Cam came back for his senior year he had a chance to break all the records by game four. And now he’ll leave with one, which I think the percentage, the most accurate field goal kicker. 

“But, at the same time, I always want the players to be happy with what they’re doing and where they’re going. The thing about Cam, when we brought him in, Cam was such a confident kid. Cam’s a really young kid. He may be 20, or he may still be 19 right now. So he got here at about 16 years old. He was young. But he’s always just been a very confident kid. That’s kind of the way his parents raised him. He came here and had success as a freshman, like I think he’ll in the NFL. He’s just a confident.”

Fountain was asked if Arkansas’ fans were spoiled by Llttle’s success?

“Yeah, Cam was anywhere from 81 to 83% every year,” Fountain said. “But, what I always tell a field goal kicker is ‘Let’s be at 80% and you’ve got a chance to be one of the best in the country. If you can hit 90% they’re going to be talking about you at all the awards ceremonies, the Lou Groza. But worst case, we want to stay in that 75 to 80. Yeah, people get spoiled, I’m spoiled but I’m hoping I can get these other guys to get somewhere near that mark.”

Once Little was gone, Fountain talked about how the search went to find his replacement, Hawaii’s Matthew Shipley.

“Cam, I thought he’d be back,” Fountain said. “Didn’t happen that way. You always have to have a plan, so I started looking in the portal to just see what’s available. So you just start going through tape, watching tape, and he’s a kid that caught my eye. He has a twin brother that kicks at Texas Tech. I like that, that there’s two people in the family that are kicking in college football. 

“So I came across his name in the portal, starting watching his tape, got to talking to him on the telephone, I just think he’s a very real person. He’s not a high and low guy. Just very even-keeled. I like that about his personality, and he had a really good career at the University of Hawaii I felt like. That’s a tough place. There’s a lot of wind on the Island. A lot of traveling back and forth. But that’s kind of how I came across him.”

But Shipley isn’t guaranteed the job. He has battled former Razorback Vito Calvaruso who transferred to Wisconsin and then back to the Hogs.

“I’m sure everybody’s wanting to know about the field goal kickers,” Fountain said. “That’s been a really good competition with Vito Calvaruso and Matthew Shipley. They’ve had their ups and downs. They’ve had some perfect days, and they’ve had some days. But I think part of it, particularly with Shipley being new here, is just, particularly in the stadium, the north end zone, the winds a little different when the tunnel’s opened up. And he’s been struggling with that a little bit. But I’ve been pleased with both of them. They’ve both done well.”

Calvaruso earned a scholarship at Arkansas as a kickoff specialist. But he was buried behind Little on the depth chart so he transferred to the Badgers. Now back at Arkansas he’s kickoff off and battling Shipley for that and placement duties.

“Still a very strong leg as a kickoff guy,” Fountain said. “Field goal kicker, I think he’s much improved. You know he got here as a freshman, he would hit a great ball and then the next ball might be really wide. But he’s just a very consistent field goal kicker now and his misses are small misses, not big misses.”

Arkansas will practice Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week with the spring game on Saturday at noon in Razorback Stadium.