Arkansas Razorbacks Baseball 2020 Signee Spotlight: Texarkana (Texas) Pleasant Grove middle infielder Jackson Cobb

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This is the second story in our series spotlighting members of Arkansas baseball's highly touted 2020 signing class, which is ranked third nationally by Perfect Game and Baseball America. Links to previous profiles can be found below.

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Jackson Cobb had not only one, but two seasons ripped out from under him during his senior year.

The Arkansas baseball signee tore his ACL in the first football game of the season and had to watch from the sideline as Texarkana (Texas) Pleasant Grove won its second Class 4A-DII state title in three years.

Determined to play baseball, Cobb got through rehab quickly and was on the diamond just five and a half months after his surgery, but he played in only a handful of games before the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the rest of the year.

Despite the disappointment of missing virtually all of both seasons, he has stayed positive about the whole situation.

“It definitely was not how I pictured my senior year going,” Cobb said. “Obviously it sucks not getting to play baseball, but I’ve also been putting in some work. … It’s helped me recover from (the torn ACL) and helped with my therapy and stuff.”

Even though he was playing, Cobb was admittedly not 100 percent when he returned to action, but he should be fully recovered in about 1.5 months. That is in plenty of time before he arrives in Fayetteville as part of the Razorbacks’ third-ranked 2020 signing class for what is expected to be an ultra-competitive fall ball.

However, you wouldn’t have known he wasn’t completely healthy by the way he started the season. In five games, Cobb hit .563 with a whopping four home runs. That is a stark contrast to the one long ball he hit his entire junior season, but - looking at the positives once again - he thinks the torn ACL is to credit for the power surge.

“I hurt my right knee, which is my lead leg hitting since I’m left-handed,” Cobb said. “So I think that made me sit back more on my back leg and stay balanced.”

When not hampered by a knee injury, Cobb has also showcased excellent speed. He hit a state-record 11 triples and had a school-record 26 stolen bases as a junior, when he also posted a .398 batting average and .527 on-base percentage.

That speed made him a dangerous wide receiver on the gridiron, as well. He was the Hawks’ top returning receiver before he went down with the injury and had a chance to continue playing in college if he wanted to take that route.

Southwestern University, a Division III school in Georgetown, Texas, actively recruited him to play both sports and his football coach wanted him to pursue similar opportunities at Division II schools like Southern Arkansas and Harding. There was a time when Cobb even considered becoming a walk-on football player at Louisiana-Lafayette, where he was originally committed to play baseball.

Although he won’t strap on the pads for the Razorbacks, Cobb’s experience playing football certainly helped prepare him for the large crowds at Baum-Walker Stadium. Pleasant Grove appeared in three straight state championship games that averaged 17,356 fans at AT&T Stadium.

“I’m not nervous to play in front of a big crowd at all, I actually prefer it,” Cobb said. “I was the punt returner my sophomore year and the first time I went out on the field and I looked up, it was crazy. There’s nothing like playing (there).”

The fact that Cobb will be playing in Fayetteville is relatively new. As mentioned above, he was previously committed to Louisiana-Lafayette, a baseball powerhouse in the Sun Belt.

It wasn’t until this past fall that he flipped his pledge and signed with the Razorbacks.

“To be honest, I really didn’t know how good I was,” Cobb said. “My sophomore year, I got my first DI offer to UL and I went ahead and committed because I thought that was where I wanted to go.

“I was committed there for almost two years and their coach, Tony Robichaux, died and that was a really big deal for me. They got a new coach and I liked Coach (Matt) Deggs, but other than that, they didn’t really contact me a lot, so I was kind of iffy about it for a couple of months and was like, ‘I’m just going to de-commit.’”

For Cobb, it was a dream come true. Even though he went to school on the Texas side of Texarkana, he admitted Arkansas was where he wanted to play all along.

His father, Mike, signed with the Razorbacks out of high school in 1982 - the same year Dave Van Horn was named the Southwest Conference Newcomer of the Year as an infielder for Norm DeBriyn.

Cobb’s father ended up transferring to Seminole State C.C. and finished his career at Sam Houston State, but his grandfather remained an Arkansas fans and that had an impact on him.

It also doesn’t hurt that one of Cobb’s former teammates - right-handed pitcher Caleb Bolden - plays for the Razorbacks. Despite being a freshman when Bolden was a senior at Pleasant Grove, Cobb said the pair became really good friends and still keep in tough.

At 5-foot-11, 170 pounds, Cobb is a natural middle infielder and said he hopes to play shortstop at Arkansas, but would be willing to play wherever he’s asked.

Considering the talent coming to Fayetteville with him in the 2020 class, playing time will be tough to come by, but he is confident the group could do something special during their time with the Razorbacks.

“Every kid wants to win a College World Series,” Cobb said. “That’s what we’re going to do for Arkansas - I can guarantee that.”