Scott Fountain talks scrimmage, special teams

FAYETTEVILLE — Following Saturday’s scrimmage, Scott Fountain spoke to the media and talked about special teams in addition to more.

Freshman kicker Scott Starzyk struggled on the day, but Fountain reflected to when Cam Little was a true freshman as well.

“That’s why you want to scrimmage,” Fountain said. “Get over here and kick. You know, Cam Little, when he got here his first year, the first scrimmage, of course this one was a little later because we had issues with weather and all that, but his first scrimmage here I think Cam left the stadium about 36% that day. I think Scott’s probably about 48% today. Three of those field goals were pretty long. 52, 53 and 50, I think. But yeah, he’s done really well. This week, we started backing him up a little bit because the key is you want to get him confident with mid-range field goals, and then you want to get him out here and see what he can do from a distance. Blake Ford I think made a 54-yarder, which was good. Blake’s got a really strong leg.”

Fountain, who coordinates the special teams, talked about the scrimmage and how he felt it went.

“I thought offense and defense really got after it,” Fountain said. “I feel like on special teams, first two punts, we punted really well. Devin (Bale) had a nice punt. I think it was about a 55-yard punt, and Gavin Rush also had I think a 50-yard punt, so that was good. We come back later in the scrimmage, had a blocked punt, which I thought was good with our punt block unit. We’re kind of stressing both. Everything is a win and loss when you’re doing the teams, but I thought the guys got after it. I feel like we got some good, athletic kids that we brought in through the portal, which I think is really going to help us in all of our teams.”

Shamar Easter blocked the punt. Easter and Donovan Whitten were praised by Fountain.

“He did, he did a good job,” Fountain said. “ I’ll tell you another guy stood out, and I was really excited for Shamar to make that play, but also Donovan Whitten, who’s from down from Arkadelphia, Arkansas. I think he’ll have an opportunity to play some teams for us this year. That’s one of his strengths. He’s pretty good in practice at blocking kicks.”

At midterm, Arkansas signed wide receiver Kam Shanks who was also a first-team All-America punt returner.

“I tell you, we did think he would be a great punt returner,” Fountain said. “He’s shown us that. We really like his skills on that. He had a phenomenal year last year at UAB, but the thing that’s been surprising, he’s been really good on some other units. He’s done well playing some gunner and anti-gunner, I’m sorry, gunner and end for us on punt, and then he’s also done a nice job on kickoff. He’s just a really fluid athlete in space, but yeah, our first thing we’ll use him for I think will be punt return. But he’ll bring some value on some other units as well.”

Bale, the punter, also handled kickoff duties last season. Fountain likes how he has looked this spring.

“I’ll tell you, he’s had a great spring,” Fountain said. “Gosh, Tuesday, he finished the day on Tuesday, I think with his average being around 52 yards on the day. He had five punts that day and (Sam) Pittman called him off, he said, ‘Gosh dang, that was awesome.’ I’ve really talked Devin up, but Devin has had a great spring. Today he had a really nice punt and another punt that wasn’t as nice. But he’s had a great spring, much better than he did a year ago. I like where he’s headed. As far as kickoffs, I think right now it’s probably a battle between him and Blake Ford. Blake has a really strong leg. The value Devin brings, he’s also a great tackler, if y’all saw him last year. It’s hard to take that tackler off the field, but Blake really has a strong leg. So, I think it’d be great if Blake could take that off of him, but I know Devin would be ready if we need him to do that.”

Fountain praised Shanks for possibly some gunner duties. He also praised another wide receiver as well.

“I tell you, O’Mega Blake,” Fountain said. “He’s done a great job, transferred in. When he got here he came and saw me in my office. Said, ‘Coach, I want to be your gunner’ and that’s rare. Sometimes like pulling teeth, you know, trying to find that guy. He said, ‘I want to be your guy,’ But I really like what he’s doing. AJ Green’s done a good job for us. Ismael Cisse, done a great job for us … we moved him there about a week ago, he’s really picked on, picked that up. And then on the in-spot, we using Bryce Stephens, Rodney Hill, Ahkhari Johnson –– Kam Shanks a little bit too.”

Rodney Hill scored two rushing touchdowns on Saturday. He also drew praise from Fountain as a kickoff returner who went into more detail on when to return a kickoff.

“I think what makes sense is if you put a guy on the goal line, or maybe a yard deep, maybe two, but typically around the goal line, and if you can get a kid to get a feel of what a 4.0 hang time is, because that’s typically the number,” Fountain said. “If it’s more than 4.0 hang, they’re going to be farther down the field. That’s what we teach our guys on kickoff, be past the 30 with a 4.0 hang when he fields the ball. So, if you can get them to get a feel for that, then you’d like to fair catch it if it’s over 4.0. If it’s not, then you’d like them to bring it out, you know. And I just don’t ever like for kick returners to back up to field the ball. I thought Rodney did a really good job for us late in the year, but we just got to get him more and more comfortable with it back there. I know in the bowl game, he kind of made a bad decision, but I think he’s going to be a dynamic kickoff returner.”

Arkansas will hold the spring game Saturday, April 19, at 1 p.m.