Razorbacks make the cut for Cali OL, Oklahoma RB, Maryland TE
While the extended dead period has made it harder for Arkansas to gain commitments due to a lack of visits, it hasn't stopped recruits from including the Hogs in their lists of programs they're seriously considering. The allure of the SEC and the excitement of a new staff headed by renowned recruiter and offensive line coach Sam Pittman has many prospects highly intrigued.
Easter weekend was a popular time for recruits to put out their "top X" lists and the Hogs made the cut for three prospects.
Arkansas already has a good foundation with Oklahoma running back Javion Hunt and that foundation has the Hogs in Hunt's top eight. The Carl Albert standout included Arkansas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Nebraska, Memphis, Iowa State, Minnesota and Virginia Tech on Sunday.
He's the No.1-ranked player in the state but he hasn't been offered by Oklahoma or Oklahoma State yet. He's got 15 Division-I offers, of which he's visited Ole Miss, Texas Tech, Nebraska and Arkansas. There's a great chance Hunt will be back to visit Fayetteville whenever the extended dead period is over. The running back has had back and forths with corner target Keuan Parker about Arkansas potentially being "the move."
Arkansas has offers out to 15 2021 running backs and three of them are off the board, committed to Ohio State (2) and Auburn. The Hogs are in a strong position with at least six targets–Hunt, AJ Green, Kenji Christian, Cam'Ron Valdez, Caleb Berry and Logan Diggs.
One of Arkansas's 25 2021 offensive line offers that span across the nation (offers out in 14 states), Bellflower, California offensive guard Maximus Gibbs put Arkansas into his top seven this weekend. Cutting down from 19 offers to seven, Gibbs included Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, USC, Florida, Nebraska and Texas A&M.
Arkansas offered the 6-foot-6 California native on March 16 and Georgia followed up with an offer on April 8. Gibbs hasn't visited many of the schools on his list as a handful are more recent offers, but plans to get to them, Arkansas included, after the dead period ends. He has visited Florida and Texas A&M, as well as USC which is right around the block for him.
Only a couple of the Hogs' offensive line targets are off the board with Jack Tucker committing to Texas Tech and Raheem Anderson committing to Michigan over the weekend. The Razorbacks have one 2021 offensive line commit, Wynne native Terry Wells.
Arkansas is a strong outlier in Maryland tight end Bryce Butler's list of favorites. His top seven consists of Arkansas, Rutgers, ECU, App State, Buffalo, Ohio and UConn. Rutgers is the only other Power 5 program on Butler's list but Arkansas stands alone as the only school west of the Mississippi.
The 6-foot-3, 240-pound tight end picked up his offer from Arkansas on March 6 and has not been to visit yet. Buffalo, App State and UConn all offered after the Hogs while Rutgers, ECU and Ohio offered before.
Schools that didn't make the cut include Temple, Toledo, Akron and Liberty.
Arkansas has offers out to 12 other tight ends in the 2021 class, two of them are already committed elsewhere while a couple more have cut the Hogs from their list of favorites. Recruitment is going well so far for in-state tight end Erin Outley, as well as Missouri TE Ryan Hoerstkamp, Texas TE Ben Postma and JUCO TE Quentin Moore.