A ‘Little’ Tradition for Razorbacks Has Huge Impact on Field

Hogs' kicker carries legendary name to making strong segment of game headed into 2022

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Jul 8, 2022 2:09 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Cam Little has heard about the other guy with that name at Arkansas.

He's learned a little more now about Steve Little.

"All I really know is he kicked a 67-yarder," Cam said Thursday morning after a workout.

Steve Little was an Arkansas All-American from 1974-77 and hit that long field goal using a strong north wind at his back against Texas. It would have been good from 75 yards that sunny day.

In those days, kickers also used a two-inch tee and their own kicking ball that looked like it had been roughed up in the street for about 20 years or so. Some of them resembled a rugby ball more than a football.

"That would be awesome," Cam Little said, laughing. "I would LOVE to be able to do that."

Cam Little is coming off a freshman season where he won one game (LSU) with a field goal in overtime and was consistent when Mississippi State couldn't hit a kick in a win at Razorback Stadium.

That's two wins in November you can draw a straight line to the kicking game being huge. He came to the Hogs to do that out of Moore, Okla.

Little led the Hogs in scoring with 106 points, including a perfect 46-of-46 on extra points and 20-of-24 on field goals.

That single point after touchdowns is huge and Sam Pittman can be excused if he almost takes that for granted. Counting on that doesn't mean he has to start chasing missing points with two-point conversions in the first quarter.

"(The coaches) really care about the kicking game," he said. "Not a lot of teams will give freshmen kickers a scholarship. Arkansas does that really well."

Hogs assistant Scott Fountain coaches the special teams and that's it. You can draw a direct line to success in that 1/3 of the game with the Hogs to when they had a coach that did nothing but that.

Razorbacks kicker Cam Little watches a field goal against Mississippi State last November at Razorback Stadium. Little's accuracy in the kicking game was the difference as the Bulldogs missed several field goals and still almost won. — (Nelson Chenault / USA TODAY Sports)

It's not an assistant doing it in his spare time or putting together the committee approach. That usually results in at least one or two losses for most teams that try that.

All of that makes kickers better. Every play involves three people touching the ball and the kicker is the last one. It's hard to kick it straight if the other two don't do their job.

"It matters a lot," Little said. "The laces are part of it and just a little bit of tilt the wrong way can cause things to be off. It's a ton of different ways things can get messed up."

He'll have holder Reid Bauer back.

"It's like retaining your quarterback," he said. "There is a huge chemistry there and you have to have that to be successful."

The other third of the process is the guy snapping the ball.

Steve Little was the first specialist to have a full-time long-snapper that did nothing else. Mike Burchfield from Crossett got frustrated trying to beat Little out for playing time and started long-snapping.

Lou Holtz made it his only job and he lettered four years doing it. Little had a senior season with more consistency than any other point of his career and was the third-highest NFL draft choice with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jordan Silver left after getting national honors long-snapping with the Hogs.

"No one can be like Jordan," Little said.

Silver worked with the backups every practice session.

"There's a lot of talent there," Little said. "Jordan spent a lot of time working with them."

Jordan Silver-Auburn — Ted McClenning/allHOGS Images

As much as anything the whole process of kicking a field goal or extra point isn't the simple thing people see, although if they do notice anything it usually means something messed up somewhere.

"Once you find that rhythm, you want to stay with it," Little said. "Once you find it you want to keep it consistent."

Having a new part of the trio is key, "but I don't worry about that," he said.

Hog fans are hoping they don't have to, either.