As expected

Darius Thomas will choose from Memphis, Ole Miss or Georgia, according to his father.

I think he ends up at Memphis.

I hope so if that is his final three.

ridiculous to play in a crap conference when he could come here.

I will say it again. I don’t think our staff wants Thomas. I think he is not as quick as we would like and it is not the end of the world if he goes elsewhere. Our coaches are going after who they think fits best with our team and we are getting a lot of the guys that we are identifying as top priorities.

I think you’re right on getting our top prospects at some positions.

But we’ve certainly missed on several of our top prospects in the OL. They may not want Thomas, I personally wouldn’t understand that, but that may be true. But we certainly are also not hitting all of our top OL prospects. Limmer was clearly their #1, and they got him though. He looks good.

I think you are dead on here.

You know, every young man is different and has reasons for what they do.

I have a cousin who, in the 90’s, chose LSU over Miami and Michigan. His freshman year, he was the backup tight end to David LaFleur and played some DE as well. What an opportunity, right? He wasn’t happy and transferred to La. Tech where he was an All American tight end in, maybe 1996, and still holds most of the receiving records for Tight Ends there. He was part of a very good La. Tech team that almost beat us in Little Rock.

Why did he leave when he had such a great opportunity?

He was a small town guy (Oak Grove, LA) and wanted to be closer to home and family…simple as that.

While the move made sense to few, it made sense to him and he was happy, successful and finished his degree there.

I bet he could out run Stone in a 40, IMO.

There’s a difference between speed and quickness. Offensive linemen need quickness more than they need speed. You can teach quickness to a degree, but much of it comes naturally. Not that your point isn’t valid because Thomas may can outquick Stone, too. IDK.

It’s the #3 recruit in the state, and there are people on here who think it was good we DIDN’T get him? Wow.

He didn’t even visit. What does that tell you? Either there was something about the school, the coaches, or whatever that made this kid wanna go elsewhere. It’s not good. Don’t get me wrong, I get if a kid wants to go somewhere else. No problem. But it’s just as much an indictment on the staff, as it is making a choice to go somewhere else. We don’t have enough big prospects in the state to lose the really good ones. ESPECIALLY if they go to another SEC school.

We need all the help we can get. So something doesn’t seem right. And, If we don’t get Wilkins(which it looks like OU), or Henry(which it doesn’t look like), And if we don’t get Burks(good chance but never know), then that’s the top 4 players going elsewhere. I’m sorry but that is terrible. Doesn’t matter who the coach is. Even if we get 2 of the top 5 it’s not good enough. This coach was supposed to be this AMAZING recruiter, right?

Elmo you sure are setting yourself up to be a fool. You will come clean and eat CROW if proven wrong, right? :smiley:

We all know rankings are everything. I said it with other coaches at the UA and I will say it here. They have the right to evaluate and choose who they want in their program same as Darius can pick the school that fits him.

Look at some of the highly rated lineman we have got the past few years that have not panned out. Thomas reminds me personally of some of those guys. Our offensive line has been horrible recruiting those types of players, not that he won’t do good elsewhere. I just don’t see the fit. Stone will play guard which requires a different skill set than tackle which Thomas projects as. Who cares about 40 yard dash for an offensive lineman. I will agree Wilkins would be a miss for this staff but, it’s not from a lack of trying in my opinion. I personally like the juco lineman we are going after, because we need immediate help.

You guys can’t have it both ways.

You can’t celebrate when we get a flip, then come out and say that we didn’t want or need the #3 recruit in the state. If Hogs would’ve got Thomas, then that whole staff would’ve been taking pictures and bombing social media celebrating it.

And I will be the first one to give credit where it is due for this staff. Make no mistake.

Darius is athletic, maybe not as fast/quick as Noah was last year for Jonesboro, but he’s also a year older now, so one would assume he’s progressed. I’m not buying the slow play by this staff, but I guess it’s possible. I’ll talk to Darby in the next couple of weeks to get the truth.

I would say the same with kids Arkansas lands. Rankings aren’t all that.

Jonesboro is an odd place in Arkansas with the negative comments about the Hogs by the ASU crowd. Kids in Jonesboro do not have the euphoric view of the Hogs like the rest of the state. There are Ole Miss, Memphis, Misstake, and Mizzou alumni here in addition to the ASU fans that create a negative view of the hogs at times.

BS, there are 3 kids in this year’s Sr class that signed athletic scholarships to Arkansas, and two commits in the up coming Jr and Sr classes. If you’ve ever been to one of their games, they Call the Hogs often, as much as they Open the Roof. The high school kids aren’t reading message boards, lol, or listening to sports talk radio. The top academic kids for the most part to go the UofA, a few go Harvard/Duke/Vandy, but out of the 30+ in my daughter’s class that went to Fayetteville, they were probably in the top 50. I’ve got one still in high school, ASU is an after thought for the vast majority.

I gotta agree with RICEPIG on this one. I’m not saying that you’re not right about some of the population, but I grew up in east Arkansas(Osceola to be specific) and I never heard anyone for the 12 years I lived there ever talk about ASU. My parents were ASU grads and they never talked about ASU sports at home, but they are rabid Razorback fans just like most of my friends were growing up. Most players of worth that I knew of in that area, when it came to picking a D1 school, always picked Arkansas over ASU.

Didn’t I read that his dad played at ASU? If that’s correct, it may also be the answer to question of why not visit and why not sighn with Arkansas. I’ve known numerous guys that played at ASU. None of them are Razorback fans. I expect the kid’s dad didn’t have Razorback games on the tv, and probably expressed his thoughts about how not-good we were and ASU could beat us, etc.
Or, maybe I’m wrong.