Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Limpert not getting in his kicks
FAYETTEVILLE — Connor Limpert still is waiting to attempt his first field goal with the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Limpert has held the placekicking job for two games, but he’s been limited to hitting 11 of 11 extra-point attempts.
The opportunity to attempt a field goal didn’t present itself in Texas A&M’s 50-43 overtime victory against the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville last week, and Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema chose to go for it on fourth down three times Saturday when his team beat New Mexico State 42-24 rather than attempt a field goal of less than 45 yards.
Bielema said his decision to go for it on the fourth downs was based on analytics, not because of a lack of confidence in Limpert, a sophomore walk-on who took over the job after Cole Hedlund missed from 20 and 23 yards against TCU.
“In the game, based on who we’re playing and where we’re at, we get an analytic report that takes the percentages of college football, but also what you produced this year, the range of your kicker and kind of gives you a formula to tell you whether or not it’s a good decision to go for it,” Bielema said. “Basically just play percentages, kind of like a Moneyball approach to fourth down.”
The Razorbacks went 2 of 3 on fourth-down plays and finished two drives with touchdowns that pushed their lead to 42-17 early in the fourth quarter.
Austin Allen hit Cheyenne O’Grady for a 10-yard gain on fourth and 4 from the New Mexico State 26, setting up Allen’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Jonathan Nance.
On Arkansas’ next drive, Allen hit Nance for 7 yards on fourth and 1 from the New Mexico State 13 to set up Chase Hayden’s 1-yard touchdown run.
Allen threw an incompletion on fourth and 4 from the New Mexico State 23 with 4:48 left in the fourth quarter.
“I think our kicker is good,” Bielema said. “Connor has hit the ball really, really well, hit it good in practice. I just wanted to be aggressive with it today.”