Arkansas hosted highly recruited safety Payton Hendrix and his parents for an unofficial visit on Monday and the trip helped the Hogs’ odds of landing him.
Hendrix, 6-3, 194 pounds of Dallas Bishop Dunne High School reports having 19 scholarship offers, including Arkansas, Nebraska, Washington, North Carolina and Arizona State. He was given a tour of all the football and academic facilities along with the campus from assistant recruiting coordinator Cody Moore.
“I enjoyed it, the academic side of it ,” Hendrix said. “I like the new facilities they’re building. I really like the coaching staff, (defensive coordinator) Coach (Chris) Ash. I like his coaching style, he’s a very detailed coach. He believes in his defense. His track record speaks for itself.”
Ash, who was in the Dallas area on vacation, cut short his vacation to be in Fayetteville for Hendrix’s visit.
“He just drove in yesterday,” said Hendrix, who arrived at 10 am for his visit and left about 6. “It makes me feel real special and for Arkansas to big-time program in a big time conference makes me feel even better.”
Ash told him the Razorbacks would use him at strong safety because of his ability to play the run and the pass.
The Arkansas campus exceeded his expectations.
“It was really nice you campus,” said Hendrix, who also met with strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert. “It was better than I thought it was going to be. I thought it would be a smaller campus but it was nicer than what I expected.”
The football facilities were what Hendrix expected.
“I had high expectations for Arkansas’ facilities and program and they met my expectations,” he said.
Before visiting Arkansas, Hendrix said he had visited Texas and will now visit Washington on Wednesday. He was impressed with Coach Bret Bielema.
“I like Coach Bielema a lot,” he said. “I guess they call him a players coach. He knows how to relate to the players as well being a stern coach. That’s what you need, a coach that’s going to get on to you. He had a good winning record at Wisconsin. He knows how to win and that’s a good fit for Arkansas.”
Hendrix said he’ll probably have a top five in August.
“They should, I really don’t now just yet but they should,” said Hendrix of Arkansas’ chances of making the list.
His cousin, small forward Keaton Miles announced his plans to transfer from West Virginia to Arkansas on Monday. Hendrix said Miles gave him the nickname of PayPay.
“Keaton gave me that name when I was real little because he couldn’t pronounce my name,” Hendrix said. “ He used to call me PayPay. He came up with that nickname for me because of the first three letters of my first name.”
Hendrix said he and Miles are close and having his cousin on campus is a plus for the Hogs.
“That makes it go up a lot,” Hendrix said. “He’s like a brother figure to me. I know he’s going to help Arkansas a lot in the basketball program because he’s a real good player. I’m just happy for him.”