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Dorian Gerald has withdrawn from the transfer portal and will return to Arkansas for another season, he announced Friday.
The defensive end has suffered a significant injury early in the past three seasons with the Razorbacks, including a broken leg that ended his 2021 campaign after one game.
It was believed to be a career-ending injury, as Gerald was a super senior, but he was apparently granted a medical redshirt and entered the portal in April so he could pursue his seventh year of eligibility elsewhere.
With the Razorbacks’ lack of depth along the defensive line, those plans have since changed.
“After many nights of prayers, and tons of support from my family, coaches and loved ones… I’ll be finishing my last year of football here at THE University of Arkansas!!” Gerald said in a tweet.
One of Arkansas’ prized recruits coming out of the JUCO ranks in the Class of 2018, Gerald was hampered by an ankle injury in his first season in Fayetteville, but eventually worked his way into the starting lineup for the final two games.
That gave him some momentum going into his senior year, but then he experienced an incredible stretch of bad luck. In 2019 and 2020, Gerald suffered significant injuries in the Razorbacks’ season openers.
The first was a freak injury that was described as a bruised artery and caused him to miss the rest of the year. Returning to Arkansas as a fifth-year senior in 2020, Gerald went down with an ankle injury and appeared in only four more games.
Receiving an extra year of eligibility because of the NCAA’s pandemic-related relief, Gerald was once again a starter in 2021 and this time he got through the opener against Rice before suffering the aforementioned broken leg in practice leading up to the Texas game.
During the spring, Arkansas’ defensive line was bookended by Zach Williams and Eric Gregory, with Jashaud Stewart and Eric Thomas serving as the backups.
The Razorbacks added a pair of transfer defensive ends this offseason in Landon Jackson from LSU and Jordan Domineck from Georgia Tech. Jackson enrolled early, but was limited this spring because of a torn ACL suffered during the season, while Domineck didn’t arrive until this summer.
Four-star freshman Nico Davillier will also be in the mix at the position come fall camp.
Assuming he is still on scholarship, Gerald puts Arkansas one over the 85-man limit. That would mean a player has to transfer out before next season to hit that mark. Click here to view HawgBeat’s unofficial scholarship distribution chart.
