Arkansas Football Recruiting: What to Expect When Expecting

Recruiting season is a fun time but it’s important to keep your expectations for Arkansas football recruiting realistic.

Arkansas football recruiting is what some fans live for. It’s always fun to see the young men that your program is getting and to speculate on what kind of a difference they could make for our beloved Hogs.

While we have high expectations here in Arkansas, it’s important to keep those expectations realistic. I don’t say that to create excuses for a poor recruiting class. On the contrary, I am hoping this class is one of the best under Bielema.

What I am saying by setting your expectations to a realistic goal is to remember our history to set the bar for the future. In case you are not aware, Arkansas is not Alabama, Ohio State, or LSU. I say that to say we as fans shouldn’t say the class is a waste unless we get multiple five-star recruits.

Reality

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The Razorbacks are a hard team to recruit to mostly because of stereotypes. Talk to anyone close to the business or the program and they’ll tell you the same thing. Most all pf these stereotypes are completely unfounded or they are based off a very different time period. So slowly building talent here in Arkansas is acceptable. One brick at a time, am I right? (Nods to Butch Jones)

My Personal Expectations

Here is exactly what I am expecting this year on National Signing Day. I expect there to be a few four-stars and then mostly three-stars. I don’t really care about star rankings as they are just products of the recruiting business. That’s not me saying they don’t matter but in a way, they kind of don’t.

The biggest thing I want to see this year is speed in the secondary. The Hogs need it and need it bad. I think we have a few talented guys already, but with Paul Rhoads at the wheel and switching to the 3-4, we could finally be competitive with a good LB/DB class.

I do expect a better recruiting class than Bielema’s previous classes here at Arkansas. He said he was doing this T.V. show to help with recruiting and since the product last year, a lot of fans want to see results from the coaches show.

Currently, Arkansas is ranked 28th nationally and 10th in the SEC. This is not going to get it done. The past 4 years, the Hogs have been ranked 23, 23, 29, and 23 nationally. There is still some time left for Arkansas to jump up and shock some people but I don’t expect it to jump much higher.

Really, all I wanted to see is progress. We won’t jump from 23rd and 10 to 4th and 2nd in one year. It just doesn’t happen, but we could move up slowly and gradually which at the moment, it doesn’t look like we will be doing.

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For all your recruiting and National Signing Day info and opinions make sure to check us out twitter @RazorbackersFS. We will have audio and video giving relevant and recent information, rumors and our thoughts on everything going on in Razorback recruiting. Woo pig.

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