Sources: Arkansas to hire Ben Sowders as strength and conditioning coach
The Arkansas Razorbacks are planning to fill their strength and conditioning coach vacancy with Louisville's Ben Sowders, who held the same role for the Cardinals, sources told HawgBeat.
The move comes after former strength and conditioning coach Jamil Walker was fired just one day after the 29-27 loss to Missouri in the regular season finale.
Sowders spent just one season with Louisville and he previously spent four seasons as the assistant director of strength and conditioning at Georgia, where he spent time with Walker and Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman.
Pittman mentioned during the Liberty Bowl teleconference Sunday that the team would have a formal announcement in the next week.
"We will have a strength coach in place and he will be working our team out over the next two weeks and we’ll go from there," Pittman said. "But we’re looking good in that position and we’ll be able to announce that position here shortly.”
During his time at Georgia, Sowders worked with 20 players who played in the NFL, 15 of whom are currently on NFL rosters.
Prior to Georgia, Sowders was the director of strength and conditioning at McNeese State for one year and he spent two seasons on the strength and conditioning staff at Georgia Tech before that.
He also spent time as an intern at Alabama and held positions at Southern Miss and Gardner-Webb.
Sowders was a linebacker for Western Kentucky and he worked his way from being a walk-on to earning a scholarship and starting in 2008.
Click here for more on Sowders, via his bio on the Louisville Athletics website.