Razorbacks planning ahead with freshman Blayne Toll

The Arkansas Razorbacks are being proactive about one of their shallowest positions heading into the 2020 season, moving defensive line signee and early enrollee Blayne Toll into the tight ends room for spring football.

At 6-foot-5, 244 pounds when he signed, Toll moving to the tight ends room was the most obvious of the choices they could've made. JUCO defensive line signee Julius Coates used to play tight end as well, but he's already up to 270 pounds, so Toll is a much better fit for the room. The room now consists of former walk-on senior Blake Kern, redshirt freshman Hudson Henry, true freshman Toll and former Illinois State redshirt sophomore Nathan Bax.

Kern played 66 snaps at tight end last season but wasn't asked to make any catches. He recorded a 74.4 grade for pass blocking and 54.3 for run blocking. Almost all of Kern's snaps came on run blocking plays.

Henry played 52 snaps (32 run blocking plays) with three catches for 15 yards. According to PFF, his pass blocking and run blocking grades were 69.6 and 52.7, respectively.

Bax didn't record any snaps in 2018, redshirted his season, and then transferred to Arkansas last August. Bax wasn't on the Arkansas roster for 2019 but should still be eligible to play since he sat out a year.

Though Arkansas did sign one 2020 tight end, Collin Sutherland, he won't be on campus until the fall, and even when he gets here, there's no guarantee he'll be ready to help this season.

The Razorbacks did explore the transfer portal for some help but it seems they weren't enthralled by any of the options–choosing instead to sign five immediately eligible transfers at other positions.

Moving Toll to tight end also gives him an opportunity to see the field much faster. Arkansas has an abundance of defensive ends and, clearly, very few tight ends.