College Students, get a year of HawgBeat coverage for just $11.95. Request details via email from your school account (.edu) to nchavanelle@yahoo.com.
Not a subscriber? Subscribe for free for 30 days w/code HAWGS30
NEW USERS | RETURNING USERS
After seeing our counterparts in Missouri and Mississippi do similar pieces, HawgBeat thought it'd be interesting to create an All-Natural State Team for the Rivals era.
To do so, we compiled a list of the top-rated recruits at each position to come out of Arkansas since Rivals started ranking them in 2002, which was nearly two decades ago.
While this team is strictly based on how players were ranked by Rivals coming out of high school, HawgBeat will put some subjectivity into it and reveal our personal "Best of Arkansas" team for this time period next week.
For the purpose of this project, though, we used players' Rivals250 ranking and then filled in the team as needed based on their stars and position ranking. For example, there were only four Rivals250 offensive linemen, leaving one spot for a pair of 5.8 four-stars. Jim Hart (No. 19 OT in 2006) got the edge over Matt Hall (No. 28 OT in 2008) for the final offensive line spot based on their position rank.
Players are also listed by the position on their Rivals profile, not necessarily what they played in college. That is significant for this list because Joe Adams - one of the best wide receivers in UA history - was actually listed as a cornerback coming out of Central Arkansas Christian.
Finally, we included two running backs (much like all-conference and All-America lists do), as well as a kicker and two athletes. Once again, that is significant because Darren McFadden, before becoming one of the best running backs in SEC history, was listed as an "athlete" by Rivals.
The 26-man roster below features 18 players who - at least initially - signed with the Razorbacks. Of the other eight, half of them went to either Alabama or Auburn (two each). The other four ended up at Ohio State, Oklahoma, LSU and Oklahoma State.
NOTE: The last class we included on this team is 2020 because ratings and rankings for 2021 and beyond could still change before their respective National Signing Days.
Quarterback
Running Back
Wide Receiver
Tight End
Offensive Line
(NOTE: Chris Morris was a 6.0 four-star offensive guard and the No. 55 overall prospect in the Class of 2020 coming out of West Memphis, but we chose not to include him on this list because he wasn't really an "in-state" recruit, as he transferred to the school for his senior season only after being ruled ineligible in Memphis, Tenn. He signed with Texas A&M.)