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Austin Ledbetter won the Landers Award last week, putting a bow on one of the best high school football careers the state has ever seen.
Having led Bryant to back-to-back undefeated state championships in the Arkansas’ largest classification as a starting quarterback, Ledbetter has signed to play baseball for the Razorbacks in college.
However, he hasn’t completely closed the door on football. During the Landers Award ceremony, Ledbetter actually revealed he hoped to play both sports at Arkansas.
When HawgBeat caught up with him a few days later, Ledbetter said baseball coach Dave Van Horn was supportive of him trying the two-sport route and that football coach Sam Pittman had been in touch with his high school coach, Buck James.
“I’ve had a great run at Bryant and maybe I can play football again one of these days for the Razorbacks,” Ledbetter said. “It’s definitely an opportunity I could possibly do. It’s up to Coach Pittman. … It’s definitely a possibility.”
The logistics of such a decision could make things difficult because NCAA rules prohibit football players from being on scholarship for other sports. Ledbetter said he has a “really, really good” scholarship for baseball, so playing football would require him using a football scholarship.
The Razorbacks have already filled their 2021 class, but Pittman has previously said he’s willing to bring in up to three more players who would then count toward 2022. It’s believed they are targeting defensive and offensive linemen in the transfer portal for those spots and they’ve already signed two quarterbacks in the class, but Ledbetter is an option who’d be available all the way up to fall camp in August.
Although he doesn’t have a profile on any of the major recruiting sites, including Rivals, Ledbetter is an intriguing football prospect.
In his two years as their starting quarterback, the Hornets went 26-0 while winning their second and third consecutive Arkansas Class 7A state championships, averaging 45.9 points along the way.
Despite sitting out many second halves of blowouts, Ledbetter completed 63.0 percent of his passes for 6,420 yards, 84 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions over the last two seasons.
The 6-foot-1, 193-pound quarterback credits his success to a high football IQ and an ability to read defenses, but he also has a lot of confidence in his arm.
