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Arkansas is at a historic low point. Coming off back-to-back 2-10 seasons, the Razorbacks have a new head coach after firing Chad Morris just 22 games into his disastrous tenure in Fayetteville.
They replaced him with a familiar name, but one who hasn’t been a head coach since leading a junior college team in the early 1990s and hasn’t even been a coordinator at the FBS level. Sam Pittman does have a reputation as an excellent recruiter and developer of offensive linemen, giving the Arkansas fan base at least some hope that he’ll be able to stabilize the program.
As if that wasn’t already a big enough challenge, Pittman is dealing with unprecedented circumstances during his first offseason. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, he and his almost entirely new staff lost all of spring practice, as well as a chunk of offseason conditioning.
The team reconvened in Fayetteville in June to begin working out and has recently started walk-through practices with the coaching staff on the field. Despite the season being pushed back three weeks to Sept. 26, Arkansas is still scheduled to begin fall camp Aug. 7.
Between now and then, HawgBeat will preview each of the Razorbacks’ position groups, breaking down the returning players and additions, providing the top storylines, and projecting a depth chart ahead of this critical stretch.
Next up are the tight ends…
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The Roster
Returning players: Blake Kern (r-sr.), Hudson Henry (r-fr.)
Additions: Collin Sutherland (fr. - 2020 signee), Nathan Bax (r-so. - walk-on transfer), Jonas Higson (fr. - walk-on)
The Starter
There aren’t exactly a ton of options to choose from, but Hudson Henry is at least a very good option to have.
Not only is he a former four-star recruit, but he also has excellent bloodlines. His father, Mark, was an All-SWC center for the Razorbacks in the early 1990s and his oldest brother, Hunter, is arguably the best tight end in school history. Another brother, Hayden, was a two-star recruit who has earned a decent amount of playing time at linebacker and will be a senior in 2020.
It would be unfair to expect Henry to follow exactly in the footsteps of his brother by becoming an All-American and Mackey Award winner, but the potential is certainly there for him to be one of the top tight ends in the SEC.
