Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino recruited the Florida panhandle heavily while at Louisville, and he is back in that the area looking for more talent for the Razorbacks.

One prospect the Razorbacks have their eye on is Tallahassee athlete Alex Williams, the younger brother of former Razorback receiver Eddie “Boo” Williams, who played for Arkansas during the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

Alex Williams, 6-5, 210, 4. 5 speed in the 40-yard dash, has approximately nine scholarship offers, including offers from Arkansas, Ole Miss, Iowa, South Florida, East Carolina and Arkansas State. He’s also drawing interest from Michigan, Indiana, Iowa State and Kentucky, among others.

“My brother played at Arkansas. He told me it was a great environment,” Williams said. “He told me if he would’ve gone anywhere else, it wouldn’t have fit his personality and, knowing him, we’re a lot alike.”

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Williams said even though his older brother enjoyed his experience at Arkansas, he isn’t trying to sway his brother.

“He doesn’t try to get involved with my decision-making,” Alex Williams said. “He told me that he saw so many people who made the wrong decision because of people telling them what to do. He told me he would tell me how he felt when I did make a decision, but he was going to let me decide.”

Williams played defensive end for Florida A&M Developmental Research School last season and recorded 19 sacks in his first year of varsity football.

He said he has been inundated with letters from schools on a daily basis, and he received seven pieces of mail Tuesday, two of which were from Arkansas.

Williams also plays basketball — he averaged 19 points and 13 rebounds last season — and said he hopes to play both sports in college.

“I always said I wanted to play basketball,” Williams said. “Last year I played football and it turned out being successful. I don’t want to give up basketball, because that’s my first love.”

Williams is being recruited as a receiver, a defensive end and an outside linebacker. He said he would prefer to play receiver in college, but he is willing to play wherever the coaches want him to play.

“He’s coming into his own as a football player,” said Ira Reynolds, his coach Florida A&M Developmental. “He’s a deadly weapon at tight end because he can outrun linebackers. He’s an explosive player at the defensive end position. He gambles at end, but that’s OK because he can recover.” Williams said he is improving on his a 2. 7 grade-point average and plans to major in business. He hopes to one day open a chain of barber shops. “I like cutting hair,” Williams said. “I like the atmosphere in barber shops; you can go in and talk about anything.” Williams said he is far from making a decision on where he will attend college. “I think a lot of people are waiting to see how I’m going to perform the first couple of games, to see if I’m legit,” he said “My motto is everyone that offers me a scholarship and a free education, I’ll look at them.”

FORTSON RELIEVED Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey received some good news Tuesday when point guard Courtney Fortson was cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Fortson, rated the No. 7 player in the nation by Takkle / Sports Illustrated, said getting cleared was a big relief. “One day you think you’re going to get cleared, the next day you don’t know,” Fortson said. “You have to have a strong mind to not worry about it. I stayed positive through prayer and my family.”

Fortson, 5-11, 175 pounds, played high school ball at Montgomery (Ala. ) Jefferson Davis and was named the state’s Mr. Basketball by the Alabama Sportswriters Association his senior year after averaging 23. 7 points, 7. 1 rebounds and 4. 2 steals. He attended prep school at The Patterson School in Lenoir, N. C., this past season, where he averaged 25 points, 7 assists and 6 steals.

He also has big expectations for himself at Arkansas.

“I want to be Freshman of the Year in the SEC,” Fortson said.

Fortson’s mother, Lorraine, said she became teary-eyed when she told her son the good news.

“When I heard, I just started walking around,” Lorraine Fortson said. “I couldn’t sit down. I don’t know what to say. I’m just glad this is over with. I just prayed about it. Courtney and I talked about it and he said, ‘Momma, don’t worry about it. It’s all going to work out.’” Lorraine Fortson also said she has a pep talk that she plans to use before each game. “I’ll get him pumped up,” she said. “I’ll say, ‘You know what you need to do when you get out there. It’s time to tear them up, Lion Heart. Let’s go.’”

HENRY AWAITING WORD Arkansas is still awaiting word from the NCAA Clearinghouse on small forward Jason Henry. Henry, 6-7, 195, averaged approximately 22 points, 6. 5 rebounds and 2 steals for Cincinnati Harmony Community prep school this past season.

E-mail Richard Davenport at: rdavenport@arkansasonline. com