Arkansas Football: Recruiting doing just fine despite 1-8 start to July

The month of July hasn’t been what many footbal fans hoped for. Before Friday, Arkansas had missed on seven of eight recruits, including 6’8, 335-pound offensive tackle Fletcher Westphal out of Leesburg, VA, and Brian Huff from Jonesboro. Westphal chose to join Billy Naiper in Florida, and Huff decided to journey north to Mizzou. Another big-time recruit many had high hopes for was four-star JacQawn McRoy, who commited to Oregon.

From the outside looking in, it can be disheartening to see so little success. However, when you look at the product as a whole, you can’t help but be excited for the future.

Ashton Bethel-Roman

To start, the one recruit Arkansas did land before Friday was Ashton Bethel-Roman. According to 247Sports, the 93-rated four-star from Missouri City, TX is the No. 92 player in the country, No.18 wide receiver, and No. 16 player in the state of Texas.

His commitment brought Arkansas’ total number of 247Sports-rated four-stars to seven, which tied 2023’s class and is three more than 2022’s class. With just 14 commits, 2024’s class was on its way to being one of the best in recent history. After Friday, there shouldn’t be any doubt.

Huge night for the Hogs

Arkansas added two highly-touted four-star prospects last night. The first was Braylen Russell. The “prodigal son” of sorts was initially the Razorback’s first commit in the 2024 class, but in October he decommitted. He found his way back to the Hogs though, choosing Arkansas over Tennessee and South Carolina.

The other was Selman Bridges out of Lake Belton high school in Texas. The Temple, TX native is ranked in the 247Sports top 50. They have him the sixth-best cornerback in the country and 11th best player in Texas.

Their commitments moved Arkansas into the top 20 in 247Sports composite rankings.

Top 100 players

More impressive than anything is the amount of top 100 players committed in 2024’s class. The composite rankings show just two top 100 players in Charleston Collins and Selman Bridges, but 247Sports ranks Courtney Crutchfield and Ashton Bethel-Roman, as well.

Since 247Sport’s inception in 2010, Arkansas has landed just six top 100 players and only four based on its composite rankings. Whatever metric you go by, the Hogs have nearly done what took three different regimes 14 years to do in one recruiting cycle. What the current staff has done is nothing short of amazing.

Conclusion

Sam Pittman’s focus on bringing in top-tier recruiters has made all the difference. While past coaches made excuses for the lack of success in recruiting, Pittman said, “I’m your huckleberry” and brought in amazing recruiters like Marcus Woodson, Deron Wilson, Jimmy Smith, and Deke Adams, to name a few. In fact, eight out of ten assistant coaches have pulled in at least one four-star recruit.

Deron Wilson
Marcus Woodson
Deke Adams
Scott Fountain
Dan Enos
Jimmy Smith
Deke Adams
Kenny Guiton

That’s 8 of Arkansas’ 10 assistant coaches to have commitments from at least one 4-star.

Cody Kennedy has one commitment from a high 3-star OL but has been on several big fish.…

— Jacob Davis (@JacobScottDavis) July 15, 2023

Although they had some misses earlier in the month, Pittman has the team on the right track. The effects of this class won’t be felt for a couple of years, but the future looks incredibly bright.