FAYETTEVILLE -- With some, football recruiting doesn't stop once they sign on the dotted line.
The junior or third-year sophomore eligible to turn pro sometimes requires re-recruiting.
Perhaps re-recruiting isn't the most accurate term because some turn pro with their coaches' blessings and occasionally are even nudged from the nest.
"If a young man has the projection of No. 1 on his back to be a first-round pick, I've got no problems," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. "I'll pack his bags and help him get ready. But a second-rounder, I think you've got to make a wise decision, and a third-rounder you've got a chance to move up. The way the NFL structure is now with money, you can literally gain anywhere from $4 million to $12 million by staying in school for a year if you just have normal progression."
So for the senior-to-be or fourth-year junior to-be truly with cause to ponder to turn pro or not turn pro, the college coach owes a viable plan to ponder.
Given his first two Arkansas years, Bielema proved to have a plan in place.
Call it the "Trey Flowers Plan" between seasons 2013 and 2014 and the "Jonathan Williams Plan" between seasons 2014 and 2015.
Both plans minimized the risk of career-threatening injury during spring football practice.
Defensive end Flowers in 2014 and running back Williams in 2015 were presented their own individualized conditioning plans and forbidden from partaking in the Saturday spring scrimmages including Saturday's Red-White game closing spring drills.
They had some midweek contact spring drills, but none involved full tackling to the ground.
The plan isn't foolproof. No injury prevention plan can be foolproof.
But Flowers stayed healthy and now so has Williams going into the final week.
Between submitting then withdrawing his name from last spring's 2014 NFL Draft consideration, Flowers was told he would have been a third-round draft choice.
He comes off another second-team All-SEC second-team season presumably rising his stock before this 2015 draft.
Regardless, Flowers leaves the UA with a diploma completed in December off a 7-6 season and bowl victory over Texas he'll never forget in contrast to the 4-8 and 3-9 years preceding it.
From his "nerve-wracking" winter experience placing then removing his name from 2015 NFL Draft consideration, Williams, a second-team All-SEC selection who rushed for more than 1,000 yards, said he knows whether to stay in school or go pro is "an inexact science."
He does know for the fall semester he will require just six hours to exact a UA communications degree in December. And he exactly knows his lament had it been proven he turned pro too soon at the expense of one last Arkansas year.
"Coming back I wouldn't have blamed myself as much than if I left and it didn't work out the way I wanted it to work out. Williams said. "It's a gamble, but you just have to go with your heart."
Sports on 04/20/2015