FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ trend of turning moderately ranked recruiting classes filled with three-star recruits into high quality teams under Bobby Petrino will be tested again with the signing class of 2012.
The Razorbacks landed 24 signees on national signing day on Wednesday and none of them rated as five-star prospects.
Arkansas’ signing day intrigue included the painful news early in the day that receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, the consensus No. 1 recruit nationally, decided to sign with home-state Missouri, and a late pickup of defensive tackle Darius Philon of Prichard, Ala., who had been committed to Alabama.
Petrino didn’t spend long talking about the players Arkansas did not get.
“Well, we wish him good luck,” said Petrino, who rapidly segued into remarks about Arkansas leading the SEC in passing the past three seasons and its success at developing quarterbacks and receivers.
“I think it’s a really good class,” he said. “I’m just overall pleased with where we’re at. ... We hit the things that we were looking for. We did a good job of evaluating and finished strong.”
Tim Horton, Arkansas’ recruiting coordinator and running backs coach, said the staff was thrilled with the talent level.
“It’s a class that filled all of our needs,” he said.
"It’s a class that’s very, very athletic. It’s a class that’s got great speed. ... It’s a class that won a lot of games.”
Arkansas’ highest class ranking was No. 21 by Scout.com, which had the Hogs ninth in the SEC.
The Razorbacks were the second-highest rated team(behind No. 9 Oklahoma) that signed no players rated in Scout.com’s top 100, and their average player ranking was 3.08 stars.
Arkansas was rated No. 31 by Rivals.com, No. 11 in the SEC, with an average rating of 3.04 stars.
CBS Sports network national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming gave five of Arkansas’ signees a four-star rating, but he does not have the Hogs in his top 25 overall.
Petrino and his staff have turned teams loaded with three-star players into an SEC contender the last couple of seasons.
“A lot of it’s about making them better once they get here,” said Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino.
The class included five players from Arkansas, including Fayetteville High tight end Demetrius Dean, who signed in the 2011 class with the Hogs but had to shore up his eligibility over the last year. Six of the Hogs’ signees hailed from Texas, three from Oklahoma, two from Tennessee and Alabama, and one each from Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, New Jersey, California and Arizona.
The Razorbacks landed 13 defensive players - including six defensive linemen - and 10 offensive players.
Arkansas was thought to be on the brink of landing Green-Beckham, who is considered an immediate impact prospect out of Springfield, Mo., but the 6-6 receiver chose the Tigers.
“Hey, you win some, you lose some and you’ve got to move on,” said Arkansas receivers coach Kris Cinkovich, who stressed he was pleased with the group of newcomers he’ll be receiving.
Paul Petrino said he could not worry about Green-Beckham’s decision.
“I’m happy with the guys we got,” he said. “We’ll win a lot more games. I’m not worried about it. I’m happy with our receiving group and we’re going to make a whole bunch of plays.”
Said Horton, “You almost take it like, well, we’ve got to move on. There’s no time to waste. We’ve got a guy in Alabama we’ve got to go get now. It is what it is.”
Arkansas’ signing day pick-up of Philon, who followed Vigor (Ala.) High teammate JaMichael Winston to the Paul Haynes-led defense, highlighted the closing run for the Razorbacks along with the linebacker Peters.
“It’s a plus to get [Philon], who can sit there and solidify the middle,” Haynes said. “But also, too, a kid like Peters who is so athletic, who can fly around and make plays.”
Peters had been committed to Tennessee, where his mother attended college, for a considerable period during recruiting.
Haynes said new defensive assistants Taver Johnson and Kevin Peoples deserved the bulk of the credit for landing Peters.
“When Coach Johnson hit the ground, that was the first guy - him and Vinny [Ascolese] - that they went after,” Haynes said. “Those are the guys who put the groundwork in and got him turned.”
Peoples called the signing of Peters a team effort.
“I was the first one in his home to get him set up for a visit, and the last time we went in there it was Coach [Bobby] Petrino, Coach Haynes and myself and we were able to secure that visit.
“That was the biggest thing with Otha, is getting him to take that visit after being committed for such a long time. It came down to our players and our coaching staff really selling him and having a vision for our program and him wanting to be a part of that.”
Sports, Pages 15 on 02/02/2012