Getting Arkansas Players Really Important for Different Reason

Everybody may be making big mistake thinking what could be biggest reason Hogs desperately need in-state talent

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman during the final regular-season game against the Missouri Tigers on Nov. 24, 2023, in Fayetteville, Ark. / Craven Whitlow-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Let's face it, Arkansas Razorbacks fans probably have everything wrong when they grip and moan about losing all these players in the state to other SEC schools. Very few are going to be Darren McFadden.

Maybe it's time the Hogs focus on that, whether they tell anybody or not. That's assuming, of course, they have even figured it out themselves at a place that for the last decade or so appear to wait on the bandwagon to get rolling, then jump under it. Really, it's hard to shoot yourself in the foot with that accuracy so often.

You have to wonder, though, if this Arkansas Edge thing they have going would work better with more players on the football team from in-state schools. I can tell you from experience in print, online and radio, the good folks in Arkansas will pay more to get publicity for one of their own before giving money to a bunch of folks from out of state.

Frank Broyles understood that, but then again he didn't have to work with many scholarship limits for the overwhelming majority of his coaching career. He could bring in every high school player in the state as a walk-on and run off the ones who couldn't play, but they did provide a local connection in nearly every town in the state.

The Razorbacks don't seem to have that now. The folks over at the Broyles Center seem to think so at times, but they have a more unique brand nationally than in the state. You wonder at times if anybody understands that since they keep monkeying with the logo and other stuff (and if you like that front-facing logo that looks like the junior college in Jonesboroy, sorry).

Yes, the Razorbacks seems to be having a problem landing highly-ranked recruits from Arkansas. The exact reasons for that are not clear. The truth is probably a combination of several things and seldom the same in multiple cases.

Don't get too worked up over it. They aren't going to keep enough for the 4-5 years it takes to develop most in-state walk-on players to a star level because so many will get raided by other programs in this day of the transfer portal.

What new basketball coach John Calipari said about basketball us just as true in football. The difference, though, is there ae enough players in football that not all of them are going to develop fast enough to get these big-money offers and leave.

Meanwhile, this donation thing from fans in the state to contribute to the Hogs' NIL would probably work better if they were giving money that would go to a player they know and heard about since he was in high school than some kid from another state that could very likely go somewhere else after a year or so.

They really don't have an awful lot to lose at this point when you look at everything. You can still go after the best players in the state because there's never enough of those that will contribute immediately as freshmen.

But those low-3 stars might just generate a few more folks contributing to the fund-raising collective that isn't exactly rocketing up in numbers. We know that because if it was, we'd be getting regular updates, maybe even with a chart from the graphics bunch.

Exactly what is the risk-reward ratio at this point?

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