FAYETTEVILLE — Dozens of Blake Mazza’s teammates crowded around him moments before the final play of Arkansas’ first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday.
Some were jumping up and down. Others were waving their arms. Most were yelling, trying to distract the freshman kicker as he lined up for a 30-yard field goal.
He blocked out their efforts, drilling a center-cut kick that split the uprights. He’s used to much more intrusive forms of distraction.
“We’d end practice with a field goal and I’d have coaches in my ear blowing whistles, squirting water on me,” Mazza said. “Teammates getting all hyped up. Anything they could get their hands on, do or think of.
“I embrace it. I like the pressure.”
Despite it all, Mazza hadn’t missed a field goal entering Saturday’s scrimmage. He was perfect in it, too, making all 5 of his kicks to continue an impressive fall camp that could lead to a role sooner than later after becoming a late addition to Arkansas’ 2017 recruiting class in April.
“We call him the Mazda. We’ll see if he jumps up in classification after his performance today,” coach Bret Bielema said after the scrimmage. “… A kid that’s kind of exciting. We’ve put a lot of pressure on him and he’s handled it well.”
Junior Cole Hedlund has missed some time with a groin injury, which has given Mazza more of a chance to shine. Mazza took advantage and continued to make his case for immediate playing time.
Hedlund has the edge in experience, but his college career has been marked by inconsistency to this point and he was replaced by Adam McFain midway through last season. Arkansas’ special teams needs were made abundantly clear to Mazza during the recruiting process by Bielema and special teams coach Tanner Burns, part of the reason he chose to come to Fayetteville as a preferred walk-on.
“I’d talked to coach Burns (and) he’d said they’d had a problem with kickoffs, field goals were still open,” Mazza said.
Mazza was rated the No. 12 kicker in the 2017 class by Chris Sailing Kicking and chose the Razorbacks over Utah, Duke, Houston, Texas Tech and others. He visited Utah, Duke and Arkansas along with his parents and younger sister.
“At the end of it, I was in love with Arkansas, so I’m here,” Mazza said. “… Sat down with my whole family, listed the pros and cons and figured out this is where I needed to be. They were really hoping I was going to pick Arkansas. Utah is a little far from where I’m from and after the visit they fell in love with coach (Bielema) and coach Burns.”
He committed in late April and didn’t arrive on campus until the second summer session because he didn’t graduate from Plano East High School until mid-June.
But the 5-foot-9, 173-pounder has made the most of his time since arriving.
“Coming in here he’s a littler guy, but who am I to doubt,” said redshirt freshman linebacker Grant Morgan, who is working as a backup holder. “He’s done really well so far and surprised a lot of people.”
Saturday, 4 of Mazza’s 5 kicks were purely struck and right down the middle. The other was a low-hit line drive that went in but wasn’t as pretty. It prompted Bielema to ask what had gone wrong.
“He said, ‘I hit the ground first,’ so at least he’s honest,” Bielema said.
That was the only minor setback of Mazza’s day and he still made the kick. He hasn’t had the opportunity to prove himself in a college game setting yet, but he’s perfect in fall camp, which means that chance might not be too far away.