Advertisement
football Edit

SMU Grad Transfer QB Ben Hicks Visiting Arkansas

With just 48 hours to go until the spring semester begins at Arkansas, the Razorbacks are bringing in a grad transfer quarterback to visit that they're very familiar with. Sources told HawgBeat that former SMU quarterback Ben Hicks is taking a one-day visit to the Hill.

Hicks would be an early enrollee, which makes him even more desirable to the Razorbacks who just lost redshirt senior quarterback Ty Storey. Storey started the majority of games in the Hogs' 2-10 2018 season but put his name into the transfer portal on Wednesday.

Chad Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock coached Ben Hicks for three seasons at SMU and Hicks is now the program's all-time leading passer. Hicks had his worst season as a redshirt junior under Sonny Dykes with a 55.8 pass completion percentage but threw for 3569 yards in 2016 with 33 touchdowns and 12 picks.

Hicks was benched this season at SMU but won the job back. He was not the incumbent starter for 2019 so he decided to transfer out of the program. Arkansas was amongst the first programs to reach out to Hicks, he also visited Louisville this week.

The Texas native was an Elite11 quarterback but rated as a 5.5 3-star prospect out of Midway High School in Waco. Hicks is a mobile pocket passer with a strong arm. He's shown a great ability to run Morris's up-tempo offense though people question how good Hicks is without NFL caliber receivers around him.

The chances to land Hicks are very good for the Razorbacks. Morris has just four projected scholarship quarterbacks for next season, redshirt sophomore Daulton Hyatt, redshirt freshmen John Stephen Jones and Connor Noland and true freshman KJ Jefferson.

Even if the Razorbacks add Hicks for the spring, it's not totally out of the question that they add another quarterback for the fall.

Check out the projected 2019 scholarship distribution.

Advertisement