From 233 to 28: Breaking Down Arkansas's 2019 Football Offers

The Razorbacks' 2019 class is less than two weeks away from completion and though it's not totally finalized, it's unlikely Arkansas will handout more than a couple new 2019 offers, if any. The Hogs signed 21 in the early signing period, 19 from high school, two from junior college, and added graduate transfer quarterback Ben Hicks shortly after. They're waiting on six commits and two linebacker prospects to make final decisions and sign but at the end they'll be signing 28 non-transfer additions for 2019.

Chad Morris and his staff offered 233 (probably a few more) high school and junior college prospects with the initial intention of signing around 21-22 players. As the season progressed, that number went all the way up to 29 with many players announcing transfers during and after the season. That means the staff had to eliminate (or be eliminated by) 88 percent of their offers to get down to the final number.

Let's take a look at all 233 offers to see how the class got to where it is now, ranked the 18th best class in the nation by Rivals with 14 4-stars.

The Razorbacks waited to offer many JUCO prospects until they got to see what their personnel looked like during the season. It was clear once the season started that they needed immediate help on the offensive line that their prospective high school additions might not be able to provide.

They offered 9 JUCO offensive linemen, brought four of them in to visit and landed two of them, Myron Cunningham and Chibueze Nwanna. Cunningham's recruitment was a late battle but Arkansas's early playing time was most appealing. The other prospects committed to Penn State, Syracuse, Nebraska and Oregon with a few left to decide their next move.

They offered four JUCO linebackers, brought in three to visit, and are as close as any right now to landing Lakia Henry. The two other prospects committed to Colorado and Texas, the fourth is still undecided.

POSITION:

QB - 8
WR - 38
TE - 1
OL - 42
RB - 21
ATH - 20
DB - 28
LB - 16
DE - 38
DT - 10

Joe Craddock offered eight quarterbacks and always had his heart set on K.J. Jefferson, seven of the other quarterbacks are committed to Power 5 schools while the final one is undecided. The Hogs have 10 2020 quarterback offers out already.

Wide receiver was the third largest offer group in 2019 and they've already way surpassed that offer count in the 2020 class. The Hogs pulled in 4 4-star wide receivers and only eight of their 34 offers are 3-stars, that's great odds. Every single other 4-star wide receiver offer is committed to a Power 5 school.

There was only ever one target at tight end for the Razorbacks and they got him.

Arkansas's offensive line recruiting was one of the fan base's biggest gripes all season long, and they were right to worry, but the staff pulled it out in the end signing six healthy, athletic linemen. Despite offering 42 linemen, the staff seemed to be missing out on some of their most promising targets. They offered just 15 4-star linemen even though there are 54 4-star OL across the country, so it was inevitable that they'd bring in 3-stars. Almost every single 4-star in the country committed to a Power 5 school so the Hogs definitely weren't the only ones that had to go down their list for commits.

Arkansas offered 21 running backs in the 2019 class and have already offered 21 for 2020. They brought in several running backs for official visits but couldn't get the 4-stars to pull the trigger, taking the silent commitment of A'Montae Spivey. Three of the 21 offers remain uncommitted while 11 are committed to Power 5 programs.

The Hogs offered 20 prospects that fall under the "athlete" category but what they were looking for were defensive backs, they even tried to get some of the athletes that consider themselves to be receivers, like in-state Ole Miss commit Jaden Jackson, to play defensive back. In the end, the Hogs only have one "athlete" in the 2019 class and the term applies for him well, in-state 3-star Malik Chavis. The majority of Arkansas's athlete offers are committed to Power 5 programs.

Arkansas offered 28 defensive backs, almost all of which are now committed to Power 5 schools. They snagged two out of Louisiana, one out of Tennessee and one from Texas. 18 of the 28 offers were 4-star prospects. That's pretty good odds.

John Chavis never wanted to go very heavy on the linebacker spot in 2019 but towards the end of the cycle they realized just one wasn't going to cut it. They missed out big on Tennessee linebacker Jackson Hannah who committed to his legacy school, Nebraska, but were able to pick up a big sleeper in Zach Zimos. Almost all the linebacker offers are "Power 6" bound and half of them are 4-star prospects. Hogs are still working to land Tennessee linebacker Chris Russell.

Arkansas had the big benefit of two legacies at defensive end in Zach Williams and Mataio Soli but they still had to recruit hard to land them and 4-stars Collin Clay and Eric Gregory. Chavis wanted to juice this line up right away, offering 18 highly-ranked players. Nearly all their defensive end offers are headed to powerful programs.

They didn't need to offer many defensive tackles to land the three they have in Marcus Miller, Taurean Carter and Enoch Jackson. They only offered 10 defensive tackle prospects and all but Arkansas's de-commits Trevis Hopper and Carl Williams are going to Power 5 programs.

They say you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince and the same goes with recruiting. The more offers you give out, the better chance you have of being in the mix with elite players come decision day. Of 233 offers, 90 of them are SEC-bound. Arkansas has already given out over 160 2020 offers, which is about middle-of-the-pack in the SEC right now.

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