There has never been, and there will likely never be again, a recruiting cycle like the one we've witnessed for the 2021 class.
Hit with a pandemic at the height of the recruiting process, in the spring of their junior seasons, the prospects that signed on Wednesday never took official visits, never had in-home visits or college coaches visiting them at their high school, and they signed without seeing their future coaches face-to-face for 10 months (at best) leading up to signing day.
Arkansas was in the same boat as every other program in the nation but they still somehow managed to pull off a feat we've never seen before–a class with zero decommitments.
From Terry Wells' first commitment in March to Jayden Johnson's commitment in December, all 20 prospects that committed to Arkansas throughout the year signed with Arkansas–and all of them signed before 8:30 a.m.
Not only were there no decommitments, the Hogs also got out of the infamously treacherous signing day completely triumphant, shock-free, and with three more additions in tow.
"We had a great day," Head coach Sam Pittman started Wednesday afternoon. "We were able to sign 23 players from eight different states, and 10 of those kids will be coming in here midyear with the other 13 coming in late May, early June. The greatest thing I think about this class is once they were committed, they stayed committed to us. I think that says a lot about our coaching staff and the relationships they had built with these guys.
"But really, really happy that there was no drama," Pittman continued. "It seems like every year at this point there’s a lot of leaving and coming and that didn’t happen to us. So I’m really grateful for that. We had Zoom in-home meetings with them last week and then again this week. There was never any indication that they were talking to other people, were interested in other people, and for that we as an entire staff are grateful and we’re pleased with the kids that we signed today."
The Razorbacks' class of 20 began the day ranked 22nd in Rivals' national team rankings, and they've finished the day at 22, but with 23 signees.
The real splash of the national signing period for the Hogs actually came on the eve of the big day. Trent Gordon, a former 4-star who played a significant supporting role for Penn State at corner in 2019, announced he'll be transferring to Arkansas. The Gordon addition, however, doesn't impact Arkansas's team recruiting score.
Despite two more new additions on signing day, no one was very surprised. Pittman revealed, as most suspected, that they'd had Georgia defensive tackle Cameron Ball sealed up for a while. Sources also indicated to HawgBeat that the Hogs locked in JUCO defensive tackle Jalen Williams days before official signing day.
Adding 6-foot-5 Ball and 6-foot-3 Williams on Wednesday helped Arkansas alleviate one of their biggest issues.
"To be honest with you, we just have to get bigger," Pittman said. "When we run out there and the other teams run out there, that's had a little bit longer to recruit than we have, they look like an SEC team. And we're getting there, but we can't get pushed around on both sides of the ball. And the only way I know how to do that is to sign bigger and better athletes, and with your offseason program."
One thing that does stand out about the 2021 signing class is the small number of in-state signees. Arkansas signed four, Wells, Marco Avant, Landon Rogers and Eric Outley, and only offered one more–Dreyden Norwood, who signed with Texas A&M.
"Certainly you want to get a lot of kids in your own state," Pittman said. "I believe that the Razorback means something to them. We did not get every kid in the state that we offered, even though we would have liked to. But we were not able to lock down the state totally."
While Arkansas signed four, 15 more in-state prospects were committed to other FBS programs heading into early signing day. If 2021 players had been able to attend camps–perhaps more would be signing with the Razorbacks.
"It's very hard to miss on a kid athletically if you've had him on your campus and he's worked out for you," Pittman said. "You ask him to do exactly what you're going to ask him to do in individual and in team. You want to make sure you're right on a kid, have him come to camp. There would be crazy value to that."
There's no question the Razorbacks' 2022 class has potential to be more star-studded than the 2021 class, especially with multiple in-state 4-star targets, but currently, there's no end to the dead period in sight. Recruiting over Zoom isn't likely to end, even when the dead period does.
"I think there’ll be a little bit more Zoom world, especially with kids who aren’t close or who aren’t bordering or can’t get here," Pittman said. "I think we’ll add a little bit of what we’re doing right now to our recruiting and certainly we’ll look forward to going out and being able to get face to face with our recruits or at least see them at practice."
