Arkansas Makes Big Moves for 4-star DL Vernon Broughton on Official Visit
Arkansas looked like the underdog for 4-star defensive lineman Vernon Broughton, but his 48 hours on the Hill went a long way to improving their chances. Broughton brought his whole family on the visit, including his sister, Asia, who is being recruiting to play basketball for the Hogs.
"Visit-wise, to be honest, it was just amazing,” Broughton said. “Coach Morris was great and seeing how much my family loved it was great. My family is very important to me, overall, they thought it was amazing as well.”
Broughton is a national recruiting with 20-plus offers from all over. He's got Alabama, Texas, A&M, Ohio State, Arkansas and LSU in his top six so it would probably be considered the biggest recruiting win for Chad Morris in his time here at Arkansas, along with Trey Knox last year. Along with Morris, Broughton is also being recruiting by Ron Cooper who handles the Houston area, and defensive tackles coach Kenny Ingram.
"Coach Morris is a great guy and it was fun just getting to know him,” Broughton said. “They are all great coaches and just getting to know them was a highlight and hearing what they think I can do for them.”
The Houston native was showed around by a notoriously good host, Gabe Richardson. Broughton spent Friday night at Morris's house with his family and the football team had a pool party on Saturday before going to the Hogs baseball game.
“There were a lot of highlights,” Broughton said. “The best was probably last night at Coach Morris’ house. That was a lot of fun and a great time. It was really nice.”
On top of visiting Texas and A&M several times this spring, Broughton has also checked off his official visit at Texas.
“I have been to Texas and Arkansas and my next one will be to Ohio State,” Broughton said. “This one really helped Arkansas. Like I said, it was amazing.”
Broughton said he will just "see how things go" and make a decision, so he'll likely visit Ohio State and think things over before making any moves. At 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds, Broughton is absolutely dominant at defensive end but he could also be moved inside if he came to Arkansas.
With Rivals ratings and rankings due to update next week, Broughton, currently at no. 86 nationally, is in position to make a jump. The 4-star was a Rivals 3-stripe camp MVP in Houston and he punched his ticket to both The Opening Finals and Rivals 5-star Challenge where he'll compete to move up the rankings even further.
“I think I have got a lot better with my hands,” Broughton said. “I have just got to keep getting in the weight room and keep getting better to be the player I want to be.”
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