FAYETTEVILLE — It’s easy to pinpoint the highlight of Arkansas junior kicker Connor Limpert’s college career, but he is hoping there are a lot more moments left that will top that.
Limpert, a former Allen, Texas, standout, converted a 34-yard game-winning field goal with four seconds left as the Razorbacks rallied to down Ole Miss 38-37 in Oxford last season.
“It gives me great confidence now because I have that experience under my belt with field goals even though I started freshman year for kickoffs,” Limpert said. “Especially with that game-winner, I now feel like I could just kick a game-winner every game and be fine.”
It was the first game-winning kick for Arkansas since Alex Tejeda’s 37-yarder to beat East Carolina in the 2010 Liberty Bowl.
“Going into it I was really excited because a lot of my former (high school) players play for Ole Miss and…(one) was actually the field goal blocker,” Limpert said. “It was fun playing against him and kicking the winning field goal was basically the best feeling I could have asked for, especially to do it against them when he was trying to block the kick.”
Limpert actually made the kick from the same distance three previous times with Ole Miss calling timeout just before he was ready to toe the ball toward the uprights.
“I could have done six, I could have done eight, I could have been there all night if I needed to be,” LImpert said.
It certainly was a shot of confidence for Limpert, who also kicks off for Arkansas and had 21 touchbacks among his 66 kickoffs last season.
“It gives me great confidence now because I have that experience under my belt with field goals even though I started freshman year for kickoffs,” Limpert said. “Especially with that game winner, I now feel like I could just kick a game-winner every game and be fine.”
Limpert, who struggled this spring, believes he has fended off challengers for both jobs.
“I believe that I will be both,” Limpert said. “I think I deserve both and I have been hitting good enough to start on both.”
The game-winning field goal was part of an 8-of-9 season for Limpert, whose only miss last season was a 34-yarder earlier in the Ole Miss game.
“I try to just clear my mind out, the same thing you have to do in a game,” Limpert said. “You have just got to have your mind clear and make sure you are focused on one thing and one thing only, which is the kick.”
He does have one technical point that he uses to stay right.
“Mainly for me to stay consistent, I drop my left shoulder sometimes and that can make my ball go right so I over-exaggerate it and stay tall and make sure my foot is locked through the whole time,” Limpert said.
Limpert, who was 33-of-34 on PATs last season, is 15-of-15 from inside 40 yards during preseason camp, according to Arkansas kicking coach Tanner Burns.
“I haven’t missed inside the 40 and that’s going to be my goal,” noted Limpert, who was 5-of-6 from 40 on in last season. “My goal is to honestly never miss, but so far I have not missed inside the 40.
“Honestly, I didn’t even notice it until he showed me our stats or whatever and I said, ‘Dang, that is a really a good thing to do,’ because mainly all of our field goals are going to be inside the 40 unless we are trying to go for a deep one to end the half or saying we might as well go for it.”
Limpert also booted field goals of 56 and 52 yards in Arkansas’ first scrimmage of the preseason.
“It definitely was a great feeling because the 52-yarder was in a game-winning situation,” Limpert said. “It was a good feeling for sure. It was live rush.”
He feels confident from 55 yards out, too.
He is working with a new holder this season in former Springdale High quarterback Jack Lindsey.
“He knows how to handle those low balls, like, if it skips back to him he is great about trapping the ball and picking it up really kick so I don’t have to really slow down my steps at all,” Limpert said. “He has been consistent with that.”
There is a two-way battle for the snapping duties with junior George Madden (6-1, 212) of Blanchard, Okla., and redshirt freshman Jordan Silver (6-1, 217) of Branson, Mo.
“It is on the money every time and both of our snappers are the best snappers I have seen. They are neck and neck every day. To this point, it is to really someone is going to half to mess up.”
New NCAA rules allow kick returners to fair catch the ball if they choose to do so.
“Tanner Burns is the mastermind behind all this and definitely has some tricks that he will throw out at some teams,” Limpert said. “Mainly we are just going to go deep, but definitely going switch it up sometimes so they don’t get in a groove of getting used to our returns.”
Limpert admits he would like to have a perfect season where there are no returns.
“I have one mindset and that is to kick it out of the end zone and that is mainly going to be my goal,” Limpert said.
He hopes that leads to a scholarship.
“I hope,” LImpert said. “I am just trying to let it all play out.”
Limpert believes all facets of Arkansas' special teams will be better this season.
“I think we are all going to be good this year, especially because both of our punters (Blake Johnson and Reid Bauer) had their best days of camp in the last scrimmage,” Limpert said. “I really enjoyed them hitting some really big balls. Our return team, we have some dogs on our kickoff coverage, and we have got some fast guys on there that are going to be flying down the field knocking some heads off for sure.”