Living a dream
Mallett finally gets his chance at Arkansas
Jimmy Carter
Issue date: 4/1/09 Section: Sports
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He's a 6-foot-7, 250-pound sophomore with a rocket right arm.
But, punter?
Sure enough, the sophomore signal caller lined up in punt formation on the second day of spring practice. And he wasn't half bad, consistently booming 35-yard punts with solid hangtime.
With no proven punter on campus, Razorback coach Bobby Petrino decided to experiment with Mallett, and the quarterback jumped at the opportunity to help his team.
"I punted in high school, and coach asked me if I could punt a little bit in the spring," Mallett. "If it helps the team, I'll do whatever."
Mostly, Mallett is just excited that he is finally living out his childhood dream as an Arkansas Razorback, a dream that looked like it would go unfulfilled after he signed with Michigan out of high school in 2007.
"I grew up 30 minutes from here, and I always wanted to be a Hog," Mallett said. "Playing for the Hogs is every kid in Arkansas' dream growing up. I'm living a dream right now that I've had since I was born."
The Texarkana, Texas, native was rated the No. 4 player in the nation by one service, but Gus Malzahn had just been named the new offensive coordinator at Arkansas and the Hogs had just inked Malzahn's star pupil, quarterback Mitch Mustain. Mallett read the writing on the wall and chose Michigan over Texas.
As a true freshman, Mallett played in 11 games, including three starts, while throwing for 892 yards and seven touchdowns for the Wolverines. Mallett's coach, Lloyd Carr, retired amid pressure following a 9-4 season and Michigan hired Rich Rodriquez, who brought with him a spread-option offense ill-suited for Mallett's talents.
Petrino was hired as head coach of the Razorbacks, and Mallett saw an opportunity for him to don the cardinal-and-white, just like he had always imagined.
"The situation wasn't right out of high school so I went up north," Mallett said. "The situation ended up not being right after a year so I came back where I wanted to go. No regrets."
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