Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said the Razorbacks submitted the names of three juniors -- Alex Collins, Hunter Henry and Denver Kirkland -- to the NFL draft advisory board on the Monday after Arkansas' 28-3 victory over Missouri on Nov. 27.
"It's been my experience, first time going back almost 10 years ago now, it was almost the first week of January before you got anything back," Bielema said. "They've streamlined it and tried to make it more efficient, so I would expect we might get something back before the game, but there's no guarantees."
Bielema said Arkansas can submit two more juniors for evaluation.
"I'll talk to a couple of guys, but they [Collins, Henry and Kirkland] were the ones who had the most play or the most visible ability it seemed."
Henry said Friday that he's asked by "pretty much everybody" about whether he'll enter the 2016 NFL Draft or return to Arkansas for his senior season.
"I'm in the process of dealing with all that ... thinking about it and looking at both sides," said Henry, who on Wednesday won the Mackey Award as the nation's top tight end.
Henry said deciding what to do with his future hasn't been a distraction as the Razorbacks prepare to play Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2.
"I've got guys in the locker room that are going to keep me focused, and these coaches around here are going to keep me really focused on the game, and I'm going to keep myself focused," he said. "I'm here now, and this is the most important thing to me."
3 in a row?
Arkansas has a chance to win three consecutive bowl games for the first time when it takes on Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2, 2016.
The Razorbacks defeated the Wildcats 29-16 in the 2012 Cotton Bowl and beat Texas 31-7 in last year's Texas Bowl to mount a two-game winning streak in bowls.
Bret Bielema can become the first Arkansas coach to deliver back-to-back bowl victories .
Arkansas has a 14-23-3 record in bowls.
Exposure
Bret Bielema said he agreed to appear on the CBS broadcast from the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta last Saturday because of how it benefits the program.
"It was awesome," Bielema said. "Again, our recruits were shooting me [texts] and, you know, it's just for the exposure. That's the No. 1 reason. I don't do it for me, I do it for the exposure of our program and it works."
Full flow
Bret Bielema and the Arkansas coaches are having to balance early bowl practices with recruiting and the busy postseason awards schedule.
Bielema was in New York City, Atlanta and Memphis for the College Football Hall of Fame induction, the annual awards show reception and a Liberty Bowl news conference and dinner during the course of the week. He also mixed in recruiting when he could, including Friday morning.
"We'll go out Sunday full flow," he said. "We've got a couple of planes. We'll be from coast to coast just for a little 24-hour window there."
Early work
Two of Arkansas' early practices were strictly for developmental players, but not all of the coaches have been in attendance.
Offensive coordinator Dan Enos and defensive coordinator Robb Smith conducted Wednesday's practice with Coach Bret Bielema and the other assistants out recruiting. One player, tight end Hunter Henry, missed that workout while he was in Atlanta receiving the Mackey Award as the nation's top tight end.
"These first practices have nothing to do with Kansas State," Bielema said Thursday in Memphis. "It's Arkansas-Arkansas."
Sports on 12/12/2015