HawgBeat - New Arkansas OL Fernando Carmona Jr. details journey to Fayetteville
New Arkansas Razorbacks football offensive lineman Fernando Carmona Jr. details his journey to becoming a Hog.
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Sam Pittman and the Arkansas Razorbacks made a huge portal splash when San Jose State starting left tackle transfer Fernando Carmona Jr. committed to the Hogs on Dec. 15.
The 6-foot-5, 325-pound redshirt sophomore played 765 snaps during the 2023 season and was one of the highest-graded Group of Five tackles according to Pro Football Focus with an 81.5 mark.
Rated as a four-star transfer prospect according to Rivals, Carmona joined his brother — George Carmona — on the Gridiron Junkeez podcast to talk about his journey to Fayetteville.
Here are some things Carmona had to say during the show, including his strengths as a player, the transfer process and his experiences with Pittman and offensive line coach Eric Mateos.
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On his strengths and areas of improvement
Carmona: I love pulling. I love getting out, I think it's honestly one of my strong suits. I'm kind of fast I'd like to say, as a big guy.
It's satisfying giving (linebackers) a little pop in the mouth. Sometimes they get you, but most of the time I get them.
I think the biggest thing for me this year was my hands, being able to get my hands on people, my hand timing, my punch. I think that just comes with time.
I think figuring out how to bottle up my anger and use it at the right times. Because obviously there are times when you need to be calm and collected, like the pass pro.
And then once the run game hits, you have to really turn that switch and bottle it all up and go all for it. But even in the pass game too, there's times when I'm banging back to help out my guard and you're just trying to (expletive) somebody up.
On the transfer process
Carmona: There was probably about 25 (phone calls the first day). Nobody really prepared me for it, they were just like 'Be ready for some phone calls.' So I thought maybe I'll get like five calls. And then it was, alright, they're texting me on Twitter 'Hey, what's your number?' and I typed in my number and not even two seconds later I'm getting a call. It got to a point where I wasn't even giving these people my number and they were calling me.
Those first three days felt like a blur. I made all those phone calls and I was like, 'Who did I just talk to? What were the last two phone calls I had?' So if I were to redo it all over again, I think I'd have a notepad with me. I was just taking it all in and not processing it. It was going over my head.
On his phone call with Arkansas OL coach Eric Mateos
Carmona: I guess Arkansas kind of stood out the most because the coach that called me, Eric Mateos, it wasn't about ball right away. And I was like, alright this is kind of refreshing. He had told me that he was a cuban himself, he talked about his family and how much he loved his family. I thought this was someone I could get behind. He set himself different from all those other guys.
On the entire recruitment process
Carmona: It was a really cool experience, but it's draining. That first day you get there, it's cool. The whole week, they're just fluffing your nuts. It's pretty cool, but to a certain extent, you're just like 'alright man, there are only certain things that I'm here for, I'm here for the offensive line coach and how you guys are going to develop me" and some of that stuff gets lost.
On his experience with Sam Pittman
Carmona: I get there and from the jump, (Sam) Pittman and Mateos, they treat me like I'm the number one guy and it was really special. They did that at UCLA, but I didn't really have a conversation with the head coach until the last day and it was like a setup meeting.
From the jump they really took me under their wing. We had breakfast that first day I was in Arkansas, I was going to go back with the assistant coach and Pittman was like 'no, no, no, no, no, get in my car' and he's just whipping around Arkansas and he's just talking to me about life, 'you know if you come here you can live in these houses here' then he drives past a little further and he's like 'you got these houses right here' and one of the coolest stories was when we pulled up to this model home.
He's like, 'I'm going to get into this house, I'm the ball coach of Arkansas, I can get into this house.' It was locked and he made the call, 'can you open up this model home?' She was like, 'Oh I'll do it right now.' And not even a minute later we're in the model home checking it out.
We touched on a lot of good things and it went well, from there it just felt right.
On receiving phone calls even after his commitment
Carmona: I've probably gotten like 15 calls. From all different types of people. Like you said, they're all just trying to sell you, 'Hey Arkansas is not the place for you.' And they just all bad rap each other. I've already made up my mind, this is where I want to be. Please just leave me alone. And they don't leave you alone, they stay persistent. It's a business at the end of the day.
