FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas had some of the top prospects in the nation at today’s specialist camp.
Two of the top snappers in the country, Adam Bay and Adam Higuera showed why they’re ranked No. 1 and No. 6 respectively by Kohl's Kicking. The two have been working out together for five years.
Bay, 6-1, 215 pounds of Mesa, (Ariz.) Desert Ridge has something that is very rare for his position at such an early stage- scholarship offers. He has offers from Memphis, Wyoming and and New Mexico.
“Arkansas is one of the schools that’s been hitting me the most lately,” Bay said. “With them being in the SEC, it’s definitely a level of football I would like to play at. It’s the top conference in the nation in my opinion, that’s why I would like to play at a school like that.”
Bay is also drawing interest from Missouri, Alabama, Wisconsin, Montana, and Utah. He’s familiar with former Arkansas long snapper Alan D’Appollonio, an Arizona native.
He won the long snapping competition at the camp.
“I do both long and short snaps in high school,” he said.
He has been communicating with special teams quality control coach Tanner Burns.
"He's a great coach,” Bay said. “He has a good personality and he was straight, up-front with me. I really respect that."
Higuera, 6-2, 230 of Gilbert, (Ariz.) Perry also has offers from Tulsa and Wyoming while drawing strong interest from Utah and Arkansas. He won the field goal snapping competition at the camp.
He too has been talking to Burns.
“I couldn't be happier with the facilities and the campus,” Higurea said. “I came here to compete."
Higuera would be pleased with an offer from the Hogs.
“I'd have to come here and experience a football game here before I can evaluate where I want to go, but they'd definitely be right there at the top,” he said.
He enjoyed experiencing a different region of the country.
“I love the climate change,” he said. “Where I'm from, it's real dry, dry heat. You come here and it's humid, it's windy, it's beautiful weather. I love the Ozark Mountains. The campus, I just couldn't be happier with it. 26,000 students is crazy.”
Junior Chris Kessler, 5-9, 150 of Longview, Texas won the field goal competition with a 57-yarder in a sudden death playoff.
“The field goals, I was happy to be able to get the field goal win, even going up against 2017 talent out here,” Kessler said. “I was able to covert the winning one at the end.”
He’s expected to be the starting kicker this fall after being a backup as a sophomore.
“I didn’t start and then we went to the fourth round and we missed a field goal for the second year in a row for the playoffs so I have got a lot of weight on my shoulders coming up,” Kessler said.
Kessler looks up to former Longview and now Jacksonville kicker Josh Scobee.