For Arkansas, the targets on their recruiting board are starting to commit, which is moving the Hogs up in the rankings.
It’s caused a hectic few days here in the final off-weekend some of us will see for awhile. That’s not a complaint, by the way, but with the major holidays at the end of the year falling on weekdays, there won’t be much downtime until May at the earliest. Another baseball run could push any down time to July, which isn’t the worst tradeoff.
Treylon Burks’ commitment Monday happened as the Razorback coaches were getting ready to hit the golf course at Paradise Valley in Fayetteville for the coaches and media outing that Chad Morris is bringing back — with enthusiasm as he talked from the podium about how much he liked the idea.
When you see coaches looking at their phones, then talking to each other and dancing around like they just discovered a snake it’s a good bet something good in recruiting just happened.
And it had.
Burks was a high-interest target for this new coaching staff almost from the first week they were on the job. I’ve joked with some of the coaches they spend more time in Warren, my hometown, than I do lately.
There are still some they want. The feeling from the guys who follow the recruiting season much closer than I do is many of those guys will be committing to the Hogs soon.
Which will push the Hogs’ ranking even higher. The problem is even if they get into the Top 20 they still might be last in the SEC West, which is more a sign of how things have ramped up in that division than anything else.
Morris’ first signing class back in February didn’t rank that high, mostly because he only had a couple of weeks before the early signing date.
Some dismissed him as ever being able to recruit in the SEC. Don’t judge his recruiting on what he and his staff did at SMU. With the lofty entrance requirements there for players he couldn’t sign a Top 20 class if he had them lined up to come play there.
And if anything, this staff has shown a willingness — no, maybe a fondness — to attack recruiting unlike anything seen around Fayetteville since Frank Broyles’ heyday.
It’s starting to pay off.
Now the real recruiting starts. These days when players commit, that’s when the recruiting really ramps up. Coaches turn it up trying to lock down the players who have committed to them.
Some in the SEC West are just about out of scholarships. After an agonizing few months for Razorback fans watching the recruiting rankings, the Hogs are now in the Top 25 with plenty of upward movement available (they only have 15 commitments).
The ranking will go higher. How high depends on how good the players are they get.
We were told by the guys who follow recruiting for a living their guess was the Hogs would finish in the Top 25 when it was all said and done. That looks realistic now.
But we’re just a few days away from practices starting for real. Coaches can coach. The season is just over a month away.
Media day will be in Fayetteville this weekend, the day after the first practice of the fall camp on Friday.
Expect more news on future Razorbacks coming over the next days and weeks.
And the guess here is much of it will be good.
