I was busy at the ballpark Thursday night, so I didn’t have a chance to update the Hog Blog with something I thought was interesting.

It is a little extra info from a conversation I had with special teams coordinator John L. Smith on Tuesday night. I spoke to Smith as part of a story I wrote for Thursday’s paper on the added emphasis to Arkansas’ special teams this spring. You can find the story here.

Anyway, I asked Smith about his responsibilities since arriving and the first decision he made when he got on staff. It was a pretty big one. He told me it had to do with whether or not Arkansas would keep trusting in kicker Alex Tejada, who was coming off a disastrous 2008 season.

“Coach Petrino said what about our kicker? Do we need to go get a kicker?” Smith said. “After evaluating, I said, ‘No, we don’t need a kicker but we do need a punter. That’s what we better go find because I think our kicker is going to be fine.’”

Interesting, huh?

Smith’s decision still seems open for debate. Tejada hasn’t been particularly impressive kicking the ball this spring. He has shown plenty of leg, but his accuracy has been very, very inconsistent. To his credit, it’s something Tejada hasn’t hidden from.

“It’s inexcusable,” Tejada said. “I’m on my way to being a junior. Those mistakes and lack of concentration, whatever it is, is just inexcusable now. Inconsistency. I come out and miss one, two a day. We don’t need that. This team doesn’t need that.”

Stay tuned because we won’t know how to judge Tejada until next fall, when he steps out on the field to attempt a field goal.