With seven months to go until the early national signing period for the 2021 class, Arkansas has seven commitments with 253 total offers out. It's a cold period for recruiting right now with the vast majority of offers already out and programs simply waiting for prospects to get cleared to come visit campus, so we figured it's a good time to take a look at Arkansas's recruiting footprint so far for 2021.

For many who don't follow recruiting, 253 offers may sound like a lot when signing just 25 players but the Razorbacks are middle of the pack in the SEC in terms of how many offers they have extended. On one end you have Tennessee with nearly 400 offers out (and almost a full class in May) and on the other end there's Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Texas A&M right around 200. No one in the SEC practices highly selective offering like programs like Clemson or Stanford but the programs in states with more talent can afford to offer a bit less. SEC teams offer in bulk and keep their priorities in order. Some recruits will get an offer and hardly hear from coaches again while others will get daily messages from coaches.

Some may be wondering if there's a difference between Sam Pittman's recruiting and Chad Morris's recruiting and from what we can deduce, there's not much difference in terms of number of offers out. Pittman has already offered more than Morris did in his 2019 class that ranked No.20 in the nation per Rivals but not by a very significant amount.

This is Pittman's first full-cycle recruiting class and it's come at a weird time. It doesn't seem like the COVID-19 response has changed anything in terms of who Arkansas recruits but it might have an impact on who they actually land, with many recruiting experts predicting members of this class to stay (on average) closer to home than they typically would. Arkansas always has to recruit heavily out of state regardless of the national climate but they may find less success this year in states that are further away like Alabama, Georgia, Florida and more. Arkansas's first seven commits all come from in state or bordering states.

Let's dive into the numbers.

Coach Pittman has said it multiple times already but he believes Arkansas's strength is going to be in regional recruiting. That means Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee. But, it would be silly to stick to that strict footprint all the time when you've put together a coaching staff with strong recruiting ties in other states as well.

Jimmy Smith and Georgia, Scott Fountain and Florida, Rion Rhoades and Kansas (and across big JUCO states like Mississippi), all examples of strong recruiting ties. Those recruiting ties and connections to high school coaches are why Arkansas has offers out to prospects in 29 states. Comparing that number to the previous Texas-centric staff, Morris had offers out to prospects in 22 states. Here's the breakdown:

Texas - 62
Florida - 35
Georgia - 31
Alabama - 14
Louisiana, North Carolina - 10
Michigan - 9
Oklahoma, California - 8
Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas - 7
Arkansas, South Carolina - 5
Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia - 4
Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio - 3
Illinois, Pennsylvania, Utah - 2
Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, West Virginia, Colorado - 1

QB - 12 (one commit, two left undecided)
WR - 55 (no commits, 29 left undecided)
RB - 19 (one commit, 13 left undecided)
TE - 13 (no commits, seven left undecided)
OL - 30 (two commits, 16 left undecided)
DL - 38 (no commits, 24 left undecided)
LB - 22 (one commit, seven left undecided)
DB - 45 (two commits, 27 left undecided)
ATH - 19 (no commits, 15 left undecided)

I broke down Arkansas's projected needs for each position with a cap at 21-22 new additions in this class and they're well on their way through May. That being said, only 140 (55%) of their 253 targets are still undecided, which is a lower number than the average at this time of year due to players in a rush to commit. Also, although 140 prospects are "available," many of those have made lists of their favorites, which may or may not include Arkansas, so the number is really fewer than 140. If Arkansas was to hit on 10% of their remaining available targets that would get them to a full class but it's very likely the offer numbers go up in the fall when coaches can go out and evaluate on the road again.

To haul in a top 25 class, which is always the goal for an SEC program, stars are just something you have to have. The algorithms that rank the recruiting classes give teams more points for stars (and for rankings inside the top 250) and the points give the teams that can haul them in a huge boost.

On top of already being worth more than double a 5.6 3-star, signing any top-20 player gives a program an additional 3-star player value. So, a 5-star player ranked No.15 in the country is worth three mid-range 3-stars in your point total.

Arkansas doesn't have a history of signing 5-stars and probably never will due to geographical disadvantages but offering never hurts. If you're trying to sign a top 25 class, you'll typically need at least a handful of players ranked 4-stars or higher and some top 250 players for some crucial bonus points.

All seven of Arkansas's current 2021 commits are 3-stars with Cole Carson, Javion Hunt and Keuan Parker leading the way with 5.7s.

5 STARS (Rating, National total, Arkansas offers, Remaining available targets)

6.1 (17) - 3 (2 available)

4 STARS

6.0 (25) - 5 (1 available)
5.9 (105) - 40 (19 available)
5.8 (170) - 51 (28 available, 16 ranked in Rivals250)

3 STARS

5.7 (225) - 57 (25 available)
5.6 (336) - 46 (27 available)
5.5 (632) - 37 (25 available)

2 STARS

5.4 (279) - 4 (4 available)
5.3 (52) - 0

UNRATED

0.0 - 7 (most JUCO players are still unrated by Rivals)

*Every player rated a 5.9 or higher is in the Rivals250 and qualifies for bonus points. 67 players rated 5.8 are not ranked in the Rivals250 and do not get bonus points.*