Twenty-first in a series of articles profiling newcomers to the Arkansas football team

FAYETTEVILLE - Sam Irwin-Hill has some learning to do about Southern cuisine.

The punter from Australia was on his recruiting visit to Arkansas when he sampled a southern treat called a hush puppy.

“I forgot what they called it, but a little dumpling, you dip them in honey,” Irwin-Hill said. “You know, they were really nice.”

Irwin-Hill, the No. 1-rated junior college punter in the nation by 247Sports.com, has less to learn about kicking a ball.

Since he was 12, Irwin-Hill has played Australian Rules Football, which has a stronger focus on kicking by the regular players, and he was a soccer regular before that.

“That’s where I get my kickoff skills and my place-kicking skills as well,” Irwin Hill said.

The native of Bendigo, Australia, which is about a 70-minute drive from Melbourne, has power and coordination with either foot, a rarity among American kickers.

“I’m dominantly a right-footer, but I was brought up kicking left,” he said. “My father taught me at a very young age. In situations where we’ve needed to use it, we’ve brought out the left foot. So,it’s another part of my game I brought into playing football.”

Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema, introducing Irwin-Hill’s highlight tape during his national signing day news conference, seemed to take great joy in revealing him as a right- and left-footed punter and in having a conversation via Skype with his mother, Susan Hill.

“It was very entertaining conversation,” said Bielema, who identified Irwin-Hill as his first international player.

Bielema also queued up a couple of successful rugby punts, which Irwin-Hill considers part of his repertoire.

“I like to keep it traditional, and that’s what’s going to help me in the long run,” Irwin-Hill said. “I also like to be versatile. I’ve got the rugby kicks, both left and right foot, and like anything else that can get me out of trouble.

“I like to do the traditional one, still focusing on that one, but I’m versatile.”

Irwin-Hill had to finish up a class at City College of San Francisco to be eligible, and he didn’t arrive on campus until the Sunday before the start of training camp. The 22-yearold is also a place-kicker, but he understands he has his work cut out to supplant senior Zach Hocker on either kicking or punting.

“I’ve obviously got a lot to improve on,” he said. “Getting used to everything, adjusting to everything like the weather, the way the stadium is, like the wind and what-not.”

Irwin-Hill averaged 41.7 yards per punt last season to earn first-team All-America honors. He averaged 40.6 yards per punt as a freshman.

Charlie Partridge, the Razorbacks’ kicking coach, likes Irwin-Hill’s assets.

“He’s definitely got great leg speed. He’s got great power,” Partridge said. “What he’s going through the growing pains of now is the consistency with all these eyes on him.

“He’s never had cameras around him that are filming everything. He’s never had coaches right there, players right there. So he’s just going through the normal growing pains of coming into a program like this, but he is getting better every day.”

Irwin-Hill said his mother and father have flown to California to watch his junior college games.

Irwin-Hill said he came to Fayetteville once on his recruiting visit and fell in love with the place.

“You’ve got the Southern hospitality. You’ve got great people,” he said. “Love the coaches. Love the other guys on the team. It’s really that kind of chemistry, that connection, that makes it a good football program and fun to be a part of.”

Sports, Pages 20 on 08/22/2013