Arkansas is expected to host several top prospects Saturday during the Red-White spring game at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, including defensive end Solomon Thomas and athlete Davion Hall.
CBS Sports Network national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said Thomas and Hall are elite prospects, and both will be making their second trip to check out Arkansas’ program.
Thomas, from Coppell, Texas, has scholarship offers from more than 30 schools, including Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Thomas, 6-3, 256 pounds, 4.7 seconds in the 40-yard dash, was listed in October as the No. 88 prospect in the nation on Lemming’s 2014 national top 100 list, but Lemming said that will change soon.
“He’s one of the best players in the country, the No. 1 defensive lineman in Texas,” said Lemming, who has covered national recruiting for more than 30 years. “He’s already built like a college player. He runs well, very productive, very smart and has a great GPA. I love him.
“I’m putting out a new top 100 within two weeks and I’m rating him higher.”
Thomas, whose sister Ella attends school at Arkansas, didn’t have an interest in the Hogs until he visited the Razorbacks during Easter weekend. Following the visit, he said he was seriously considering Arkansas.
“He’s the kind of guy you want on your team even if he wasn’t so exceptionally talented,” said Lemming, who saw Thomas in January.
“He played against the best competition in the Metroplex and is always doubled- and tripled-team and he’s still able to make plays. He’s relentless and aggressive.”
Thomas and his best friend, Coppell offensive lineman Bill Weber, 6-5, 310, 5.6, are expected to arrive around 11 a.m. Saturday. Weber, who is drawing interest from several schools, including Missouri, Texas Tech and Georgia Tech, is also being recruited by the Hogs.
Hall, who plays for Texarkana (Texas) Liberty-Eylau, has approximately 10 scholarship offers from schools that include Arkansas, LSU, Missouri, SMU, Baylor, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma. Hall, 6-3, 194, 4.5, is orally committed to Baylor but visited the Hogs in March.
“Outstanding, one of the top DBs in the country - not just in Texas, but one of the top DBs in the country,” Lemming said. “I have to put him right there with the best safeties. He could play corner or safety.”
Lemming travels the nation for about five months each year seeing and visiting approximately 1,200 athletes.
“He almost has an NFL body right now,” Lemming said.
“He can hit, he can run. Because he’s at Texarkana he’s not getting much publicity, but I went to see him at the end of December and immediately was thinking All-American. He’s going to be in my top 100, and I’m going to rank him pretty high as one of the premier safeties in the country.”
PRUITT STILL INTERESTED
It doesn’t appear that highly touted offensive lineman Jovan Pruitt of Dallas Bishop Dunne High School will be able to travel to Fayetteville for the spring game like he had hoped, but he said Arkansas offensive line coach Sam Pittman and running backs coach Joel Thomas have convinced him to visit Fayetteville again.
Pruitt, 6-6,275 pounds, 5.2 seconds in the 40-yard dash, has scholarship offers from more than 10 schools, including Alabama, Nebraska, Texas, Notre Dame and Oklahoma.
“I just like the way Coach Pittman and Coach Thomas talk to me,” said Pruitt, who visited for last year’s Alabama game.
“I talked to some of the other coaches up there. They really want me to come down. It’s cool. It seems like they have an energetic environment down there, even though we’re just talking on the phone. Coach Pittman is really excited.”
Pruitt makes it a habit of thanking college coaches for the opportunity to play football at their schools, which caught Pittman’s attention.
“He said not many recruits thank the coaches for giving them an opportunity to go to the college,” Pruitt said. “I’ve thanked all the coaches I’ve talked to recently for giving me the opportunity to play at their college. He really liked that about me and liked how my mom raised me.”
Bishop Dunne Coach Michael Smith said he gets three to four calls a day from college coaches inquiring about Pruitt.
“That’s almost 20 calls on just one kid,” Johnson said.
Pruitt has reshaped his body after weighing 340 pounds at one time.
“He got down to 275 and right now he’s up to 290,” Johnson said. “He’s getting the right type of weight on and still keeping that same athleticism.”
Sports, Pages 24 on 04/19/2013