Arkansas DE JJ Hollingsworth kicking off recruitment

There are already almost a couple dozen rising juniors in the state of Arkansas with Division-I offers and No. 20 on HawgBeat's unofficial in-state rankings, JJ Hollingsworth, already has two offers to play football at the next level.

Since getting his first offer from Kansas on July 7, Hollingsworth has seen a big uptick in his recruitment, making him the perfect candidate for our "Hello, my name is..." series, spotlighting in-state recruits on the rise.

"Recruitment is going pretty good now, it was a little tough at first getting my name out there and stuff with no connections but it's going pretty good now that I have someone like Earl Gill helping me with it," Hollingsworth said.

The 6-foot-4, 240-pound defensive end was going to have a tough time getting on the radar for FBS programs without prospect camps due to coronavirus this summer, but joining ARElite100 has changed the game. On top of the group's leaders tweeting about prospects to college coaches and recruiting service analysts, the athletes also raise awareness for each other.

Hollingsworth lived in Fayetteville for the first few years of his life before moving south to Greenland. Greenland, a 3A program, hasn't had a player with Power 5 attention since the Rivals era began in the early 2000s.

"I played a little bit of everything, I played linebacker, defensive end, nose, quarterback in peewee, tight end, wide receiver," Hollingsworth said.

Hollingsworth would be the first person in his family to play football past high school.

"It's always been one of my goals," Hollingsworth said. "I've always been a lot bigger than everybody I played against and people always said I'd play DI football but not until recently did I think I would get the chance."

Hollingsworth has the early offers from Kansas and Akron but the school 20 minutes north of his home still looms large.

"I watched a lot of Razorback football," Hollingsworth said. "I haven't had any direct contact with the staff but my recruiter, Earl, he's been talking to them. James Jointer threw my name out there to them a few times too.

"It was crazy. Since the Kansas offer, like 9 p.m. one night the Razorback DL coach followed me. When I saw that I just exploded. I ran to my mom and said, 'look who followed me!'"

The unrated defensive end is still growing but he displays very solid football IQ and an advanced ability to read the offensive line.

"I feel like my biggest strengths would be my strength and my quickness combined."

Hollingsworth is already eyeing a strong 2020 season, which kicks off against 4A Elkins on September 4.