When Kelly Bryant announced he was transferring from Clemson, Arkansas immediately popped into folks’ minds as a possible landing spot for the graduate transfer.
Chad Morris recruited Bryant for the Tigers, but left before Bryant signed or got to campus.
Now he’s on the market again and it’s only natural Morris would reach out to him and did, obviously. Bryant has scheduled an official visit — his first — to Arkansas on October 20 for the game against Tulsa.
He has an unofficial visit set for North Carolina this weekend.
“I’m going to take my first official visit to Arkansas,” Bryant said Wednesday to Woody Wommack of Rivals.com. “I’m excited to get down to Fayetteville and see what all Arkansas has to offer.”
What Arkansas has to offer is a quarterback room that’s going to have to see somebody leave the program after December.
Ty Storey is the starter right now, but freshmen Connor Noland and John Stephen Jones are sitting in the wings. Cole Kelley is being used in certain short-yardage situations where they want him to run 2 yards and fall forward. Daulton Hyatt doesn’t appear to figure in any plans whatsoever.
The Hogs have North Panola, Mississippi, quarterback K.J. Jefferson committed and they have offers out for the 2020 class.
Somebody’s gotta leave you would think with a lot of speculation that Kelley and Hyatt are the most likely transfers.
Bryant will find a big-time class of freshmen slated to come to Arkansas next year with the commitment of tight end Hudson Henry of Pulaski Academy in Little Rock on Thursday joining maybe the most talented group of receivers the Hogs have ever signed.
With Treylon Burks, Shamar Nash and Trey Knox committed to join the receivers already on campus, Bryant will find a solid receiving corps in place. There’s a wealth of talent at running back. The offensive line, well, that will come around … hopefully.
The biggest questions facing the coaching staff seems to be:
• There’s an overload of quarterbacks that can’t play on the roster now. Which quarterbacks already committed or on campus will leave?
• By all reports, Bryant was a mentor and great teammate of Trevor Lawrence, the freshman who replaced him as the starter at Clemson. Would he be willing to duplicate that role at Arkansas with Connor Noland and K.J. Jefferson?
• In building a program, is Morris willing to trade development of one of the younger quarterbacks on a graduate transfer who would only be there for one year?
Maybe the last question is the most important one for Morris. If he thinks Bryant could have the impact of Cam Newton at Auburn in 2010 or even Trevor Knight at Texas A&M in 2016, then maybe he would want him.
Or maybe Morris is going the same route as Nick Saban, which is get the most talent possible on the team and then move the pieces around to find something that works.
A lot of questions to be answered.
And not all of them will be up to Bryant.
