Coach Bret Bielama and his staff must have felt they hit the jackpot in recruiting when five different prospects orally committed to the Razorbacks within a 22-minute span on Saturday afternoon. The Hogs hosted about 80 prospects on Friday, about 50 on Saturday for the Elite Camp and several others there on a visit.
The five included four Louisiana players and junior offensive lineman Colton Jackson of Conway. The first to start the string of pledges was linebacker Dwayne Eugene.
“The first thing I liked was their business program which one of the top 25 colleges in the nation,” Eugene said. “It just feels like home up there. I also loved the coaching staff They’re real cool. I like them a lot.”
Eugene, 6-1, 215 pounds, 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, of Metairie, (La.) Rummel, chose the Hogs over scholarship offers from Arizona, Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, Tulane and several others. His lead recruiter Michael Smith, who recruits Louisiana, helped seal the deal.
“Coach Smith is a good dude,” said Eugene, who scored a 23 on his ACT test and has a 3.0 grade point average.
”He showed me around the campus. My ninth-grade football coach actually coached Coach Smith back when he was younger. He just makes it feel like he’s a second dad to me. ”
Eugene’s teammate, cornerback Henre’ Toliver, was the third to commit after Eugene and Jackson.
Toliver, 6-1, 180, 4.56 seconds in the 40-yard dash, reported having 17 scholarship offers, including Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Kentucky and Arizona State. He and his parents arrived in Fayetteville late Friday afternoon and left Saturday around noon.
“It’s SEC of course,” Toliver said. “They were one the first SEC schools to offer. I felt it was good for me academically, athletically and socially. It was actually my first stop of my visits that I was taking, but I liked it that much so I committed. ”
Being from Metairie, which is a suburb of New Orleans, Toliver said he isn’t used to seeing what he encountered driving up to Fayetteville.
“I saw a lot of mountains, it was crazy,” said Toliver, who has a 3.3 grade point average and is considering business and physical therapy as possible majors. “I saw the roads and they were swerving like S’s and up and down. I was like, ‘Man look at this.’ It was nice.”
Two teammates, both receivers from Louisiana, Torrance Mosley, 5-10, 175, 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash, and Corey McBride, 6-2, 180, 4.34 seconds in the 40-yard dash of Geismar Dutchtown, rounded out the pledges for the day.
“It was pretty cool up here,” Mosley said. “I liked the facilities and everything and the school is just awesome. I have never seen anything like it. We don’t have anything like this is Louisiana. It’s just different. It feels like a whole new world.”
Mosley, who rushed for 912 yards and 11 touchdowns on 102 carries while having 16 receptions for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns, chose the Hogs over scholarship offers from Arizona State, Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, Tulane and others.
McBride picked the Razorbacks over scholarship offers from San Diego State, Utah, Memphis, Houston, Tulane and Louisiana-Lafayette. He, too, liked the different atmosphere of Fayetteville along with the educational opportunity.
“It is just very different,”McBride said. “Actually they are No. 2 in drafting and architecture and that is something that I take very, very serious. I am looking forward to studying here and playing here.”
He had 21 receptions for 357 yards with 8 touchdowns as a junior.
Jackson, 6-6, 291, earned a scholarship offer from the Hogs with a good showing at Friday’s camp. He stayed around on Saturday and watched the camp from the sidelines.
“I was thinking no matter who else offered me I was going to pick Arkansas,” said Jackson, who’s being recruited by tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr. “Why not just do it now? [I] went to the office and sat down with Coach Bielema and my mom and dad. At the end they were like, ‘It’s your decision, what do you want to do, where do you want to go?’ I just said, ‘I’m going to go ahead and commit.’ He was so happy, my parents were happy and I was happy.”
Jackson became the third commitment for the 2015 class.
The four commitments for the 2014 class brings the total of pledges to 12. Oral commitments are nonbinding.
Sports, Pages 31 on 07/21/2013