FAYETTEVILLE — About the only thing Reid Bauer hasn’t done for the University of Arkansas football team this season is catch a pass.
Penn State had best beware when the Nittany Lions play the Razorbacks in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1.
Bauer’s primary job for Arkansas is punting, and he’s done that well enough to be ranked No. 7 nationally by Pro Football Focus with an 85% grade.
As the team’s holder, Bauer also has played a part in helping Cam Little hit 19 of 23 field goal attempts and all 43 of his extra points.
Most notably, Bauer has executed two fake field goals, and he did it on the road against Southeastern Conference West rivals who won the previous two national championships. He ran 23 yards for a first down at LSU and had a 32-yard touchdown pass to tight end Blake Kern at Alabama.
Bauer, a redshirt junior from Magnolia, Texas, also has a tackle on punt coverage.
“I never ran fakes in high school, but I’ve been wanting to run a fake ever since I got here,” Bauer said. “So it was a pretty electric moment when we called those fakes, and then they actually worked to perfection.”
Bauer, 5-11 and 200 pounds, played linebacker at Magnolia High School in addition to punting and had 83 career tackles with three sacks.
“I think playing linebacker helped me with confidence to look at myself as an athlete, because kickers and punters and snappers are all athletes, too, and sometimes that gets forgotten,” Bauer said. “But having that confidence of being able to perform at another position — at least in high school — was really good for me coming in as a punter when I got here.”
Bauer said the run against LSU was the first time he carried the ball in a game since the eighth grade. The pass against Alabama was a first for him in a game.
“He couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn throwing the ball,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said of Bauer’s passes when the Razorbacks first started working on the fake that fooled Alabama. “And he just stayed after practice and worked and worked and worked.
“I wouldn’t say he was Dan Marino on the touchdown against Alabama, but at least he got it to (Kern), and Kern has got some long arms and big hands and went back there and got it.
“But Bauer has really done a good job. I’m really happy for him, and to me he’s what Arkansas is all about.”
Bauer is averaging 43.2 yards this season and 53 of his punts have been inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. He has 12 punts of 50-plus yards, including a 61-yarder against Missouri.
“Reid is a really good asset for our team and one of the best things he does is he flips the field for us when he’s punting the ball,” Arkansas senior linebacker Hayden Henry said. “He gives us good field position. He’s had a lot of really good punts.
“And to put the icing on the cake, he’s had the two fake field goals that were outstanding plays, highlights of our season.”
Bauer is among the Razorbacks who endured back-to-back 2-10 seasons in 2018-19 that included going 0-16 in SEC games.
“It’s awesome,” Bauer said of this season’s 8-4 record. “A lot of the guys on this team went through those tough seasons.
“We stuck it out and kept working, and it’s great that it’s finally paying off.”
Pittman placed Bauer on scholarship shortly before the season started. The scholarship was retroactive to last summer.
“I got a text to meet Coach Pittman in his office, and we sat down and talked and he told me I was going on scholarship,” Bauer said. “I’d been working so hard for years for that, so it was a really good moment.
“I think that’s what every walk-on strives to do, is get put on scholarship and contribute to helping your team win. It also was really nice to be able to help my parents out.”
Bauer was the Razorbacks’ No. 1 punter as a true freshman in 2018 when he averaged 38.9 yards and had 14 kicks downed inside the 20.
In 2019 Sam Loy, a transfer who previously played at Vanderbilt and redshirted at Colorado, took over as the Razorbacks’ punter. Bauer punted three times in two games and redshirted.
George Caratan, a transfer from Michigan, opened last season as Arkansas’ punter, but Bauer regained the job by the fourth game against Ole Miss. He averaged 43.5 yards on 39 punts with 10 downed inside the 20.
Pittman said after spring practice last year Loy had a slight edge over Bauer to be the No. 1 punter, but Bauer again won the job.
“I had a talk with Reid at the end of spring ball, and he’s going, ‘Well, three years ago they said I couldn’t start, I did. Last year we brought a punter in and I beat him out,’ ” Pittman said in August. “He said it not over-confident, but very confident.
“And by golly, he’s done it again. I’m really proud of him. He’s just a scrappy guy.”
Bauer said he’ll be back at Arkansas next season, when he’ll face competition from freshman Max Fletcher, a signee from Australia.
“I think it’s a great signing,” Bauer said. “He looks really good and I think he’s going to be a great punter here one day.
“I’m excited to get to work with him and teach him stuff I know. Hopefully, he can teach me stuff that he knows as well.
“That’s what having a good special teams culture is all about, is teaching each other stuff. That makes us all better as a whole.”
Bauer said he’s not approaching the 2022 season as if he’s entrenched as the No. 1 punter.
“I don’t think you can ever really look at it that way,” Bauer said. “I think that’s when you get complacent and have feelings of entitlement.
“You just have to embrace the competition. It never really stops whether you’re in college football, if you’re lucky enough to play in the NFL.
“Even once you get a real-world job. I mean, you’re constantly competing.”
"do it" - Google News
December 24, 2021 at 03:01PM
https://ift.tt/32oE8IL
Do-it-all man: Hogs' Bauer punts, holds, passes and runs, too - WholeHogSports
"do it" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zLpFrJ
https://ift.tt/3feNbO7
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Do-it-all man: Hogs' Bauer punts, holds, passes and runs, too - WholeHogSports"
Post a Comment