Sam Pittman welcomed the largest class of early enrollees Arkansas has ever seen with 13 new additions this spring. A few stood out immediately and have already begun working their way up the depth chart, while the rest are continuing to grow, fill out and develop–as you'd expect from 18-year-olds fresh out of high school.
Now that the spring game has been played, let's take a closer look at how the Hogs' early enrollees did in their first semester.
Lucas Coley - QB
Enrolling at Arkansas early at just 17 years old, 6-foot-2 freshman Lucas Coley is coming along nicely already. He's kept his name in the running for third string quarterback and he got a decent number of snaps in the spring game, despite being the fifth QB to see the field.
He went 3 of 5 on Saturday for 30 yards and he had three rush attempts that included a sack. Coley was involved in one of the more notable plays of the day, a trick play pass to Jalen St. John, but he was denied the opportunity to punch it in the endzone with John Stephen Jones taking over to finish the drive.
KJ Jefferson said this of his young cohort this spring:
"Lucas is coming along well. He’s a pretty fast learner. He is like a sponge. He’s soaking it all in from the older guys, me, John Stephen, guys that have been here and know how the SEC works."
Javion Hunt, Raheim Sanders - RB
Oklahoma native Javion Hunt stepped into a competitive room this spring but it got even more competitive with Raheim Sanders' move over from the wide receivers room. The former 3-star didn't record a rush in the spring game but he did have a catch before being taken down behind the line of scrimmage.
Sanders, 6-foot-2, 220, gives Arkansas another large back in the room in addition to Dominique Johnson–one with great receiving skills as well. Sanders checked in the spring game after Johnson and had 13 net yards on seven carries.
Pittman said they're still working to groom Sanders into that bigger back but it sounds like it's going to take some time before he's a focal point of the Arkansas offense.
Ke'Tron Jackson, Jaedon Wilson - WR
