HawgBeat does the hard work for the fans in the Big Board, identifying top targets and giving the latest with Arkansas.
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This is the penultimate Big Board Notebook for the 2021 class, which has been a strange one, but a surprisingly drama-free cycle. The only decommitment of the class ended up joining the group again a few months later and it appears we're headed toward signing day with a clear picture of who will put pen to paper and who will be here in January. Grade risks seem to have been sorted out during the wooing stages of the process and they're left with a solid group committed to Pittman's vision of the program.
Since the last notebook, the Razorbacks added one more to the early enrollment list–Kicker Cameron Little announced Saturday that he'll arrive in January. Impeccable timing from the kicker after watching two missed XPs.
The List:
Lucas Coley, Ketron Jackson, Javion Hunt, Raheim Sanders, Jaedon Wilson, Marco Avant, Chris Paul, Jermaine Hamilton-Jordan, Jayden Johnson, Cameron Little
As some of you noticed this weekend, JUCO DT Isaiah Iton chose Ole Miss, just a few weeks after *almost* making it to Arkansas for the LSU game. He would've been a nice get for Arkansas, we'll see how he pans out for the Rebs when they face off next season. Arkansas did however "make the cut" for Georgia small-school DE Ian Matthews, if you can really call it a cut (7/9 offers made it). Arkansas is one of the furthest from home for him and I'm not quite sure how hard the Razorbacks are pushing for him going into early signing. He's a gamble for sure.
Cameron Ball sounds locked in, at least the commits are very confident about it. The Razorbacks not recruiting others as hard signals to me that he'll be calling the Hogs next Wednesday.
With the Razorbacks very likely adding an experienced transfer in Sam Williams from ULM as a walk-on, I don't think OL will be a top priority in the portal. It may be tempting but other positions need help more urgently in my opinion and it'd be easier to recruit Cunningham to stick around.
I've convinced myself that corner is an urgent need. I didn't get the impression that Jarques McClellion is coming back and it seems like the coaches are having a hard time with their best options behind Montaric Brown. Commit Chase Lowery is really athletic but he's not very long, neither is Parker.
Tight end seemed high priority once and it's tough to say this when we have seen (and are currently seeing) some lethal tight end play, but a proven linebacker is a more impactful addition to the team's performance for 2021, if they can only pick one.
That said, it may come down to best available and who they can sell on which position holes they can fill. They'd take one at every position if they could I'm sure.
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