FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema hinted Monday there will be new blood, possibly true freshmen, in key spots in the return game for the Razorbacks on Saturday.
Old blood would best describe several other areas of Arkansas’ special teams.
Zach Hocker, one of Arkansas’ most veteran players, is back and ready for a big senior season.
Hocker is projected to handle place-kicking, kickoffs and punting when the Razorbacks open the season against Louisiana-Lafayette at 3 p.m. at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Kendall Trainor, who wrapped up a sterling career in 1988, is believed to be the last Arkansas player to handle the kicking trifecta for a full season in 1987.
“I had seen kickers do it in the past, do all three, and I thought that would be a really cool thing to do, but it’s not as realistic as I thought in high school,” Hocker said.
The senior from Russellville enters the year with 287 career points, the most among active players in the SEC and seven points shy of Bill Burnett’s school-record 294 points.
“The record will come if you play the best that you can,” Hocker said. “That’s really all that’s on my mind is having a good year, going out with a bang my senior year,not letting my team down. Every situation that I have, just capitalizing and the record will take care of itself.”
Hocker, whose .750 career field-goal accuracy percentage ranks second behind Todd Wright (.759) at Arkansas, led the NCAA with an average kickoff distance of 64.7 yards last year. He also ranked sixth nationally with 67.2 percent of his kickoffs being touchbacks. He was recruited as a punter by Bobby Petrino’s staff for the signing class of 2010 and started his career on scholarship, but his path to the field took a twist in his first fall camp.
“They offered me as a punter, but Dylan Breeding just turned it up and started blasting the ball and I was kind of in an ‘uh-oh’ situation,” Hocker said.
About three weeks before the 2010 opener, Petrino gave Hocker a shot at kicking field goals and before the first game, the freshman had beaten out senior Alex Tejada for the job. As a freshman and sophomore, Hocker made 37 of 46 field-goal attempts for those high-scoring Hogs teams.
His 104 points in 2010 and 118 points in 2011 rank as the fifth- and second-highest single-season totals at Arkansas, the latter trailing only Burnett’s 120 points in 1969.
Just as the Razorbacks crashed with a 4-8 record in 2012, so did Hocker’s consistency. He made 11 of 18 field goals, and the 61.1 percent rate was the worst of his career.
After he had a 41-yard field goal blocked and then pulled a 43-yard try wide right in the second quarter of a 20-13 loss to LSU, he was pulled in favor of John Henson, who made two short field goals in the second half.
“It was just an uncharacteristic year for me,” Hocker said. “A lot of short missed kicks. A lot of anxiety on the field. My confidence, I don’t know what was wrong. Just wasn’t in the rhythm. I think that’s how it was for almost the whole entire team last season.”
Hocker said he consulted with several NFL players - Tim Masthay of Green Bay, Thomas Morstead of New Orleans, Pat McAfee of Indianapolis and Justin Tucker of Baltimore - to talk about the mental approach to kicking. Too often last season, Hocker said, his mental state was dictated by performance.
“If you have a bad game or a bad kick, you go to the sideline or you go home and the whole entire week you’re thinking, ‘What did I do?’ ” Hocker said. “You’re out there trying to correct everything, and really it’s just refreshing your mind and letting everything go and just restarting and just going back to what you know to do.
“That is one thing that I struggled with last year. I would have one problem one game and I would go out the next week and try to over correct it and I’d have a brand new problem for the next week, and then the next week after that.”
Enter Arkansas’ new coaching staff and kicking coach Charlie Partridge.
“We came in and created a clean slate for him since we walked in the door,” Partridge said. “He was a little bit erratic at the beginning of spring ball, but I tell you, about halfway through spring ball he became a different guy.”
Given the opportunity to select his personal holder by Bielema, Hocker picked Matt Emrich, a redshirt freshman from El Dorado, to handle the snaps from junior Alan D’Appollonio, who was put on scholarship in the spring. Hocker made a 57-yard field goal in Arkansas’ first scrimmage of camp, then added a 59-yarder in practice.
“The 57-harder felt great, especially after a season like last year,” Hocker said. “Getting a holder like Matt in the off season and having confidence in those guys, Alan and Matt, and putting that 57-harder through is just an awesome confidence boost.”
Partridge and Bielema said Hocker will have designated off days during the season and that preserving his leg will be a key part to the season. With the opener just a few days away, Bielema is eager to see how Hocker can handle all of the kicking duties.
“Zach Hocker has got a tremendous leg and has blown me away with his consistency, really in all three phases,” Bielema said Monday.
Hocker said he put a special emphasis on his punting in the off season, and if his work in the first scrimmage of fall camp - when he launched a pair of 60-plus yard punts - is any indication, he could carry on the work of Breeding, who ranked in the top seven nationally each of the past two years.
The Razorbacks lost two potential kickoff return men in Demetrius Wilson and D’Arthur Cowan during camp. Wilson is lost for the year with a torn knee ligament, while Cowan is expected back in about five weeks after breaking a bone in his foot.
Redshirt freshman Eric Hawkins is expected to get the call as the deep man on kickoffs, along with either Nate Holmes, who returned 11 punts and two kickoffs as a freshman last year, or true freshman Drew Morgan.
Safety Eric Bennett, a high school quarterback, and receiver Javontee Herndon appear to be the top two punt return candidates, although true freshmen D.J. Dean and Melvinson Hartfield are still in the running.
Position glance
SPECIAL TEAMS
RETURNING STARTERS PK/KO Zach Hocker, PR Nate Holmes, DS Alan D’Appollonio.
KEY LOSSES P Dylan Breeding.
WHO’S NEW PR Eric Bennett, KOR Eric Hawkins, PR Javontee Herndon, Holder Matt Emrich, P Sam Irwin-Hill, KOR Drew Morgan.
ANALYSIS If Hocker returns to form, he can overtake Todd Wright as the most accurate field-goal kicker in school history. With 287 career points, he is in position to overtake Bobby Burnett (294 points) early in the season. Hocker is slated to punt for the first time this year and will handle kickoffs after ranking sixth in the NCAA with 67.2 percent touchbacks last year. Holmes didn’t have a breakaway last season in the return game, but his speed is a weapon if the blocking can free him up. Hawkins, Bennett, Herndon and Morgan are all unknown commodities as return men.
Sports, Pages 19 on 08/28/2013