A player whose father has been a head coach at a couple of Division I basketball programs is hoping for the opportunity to play football at Arkansas.
Jenks, Okla., junior tight end Reese Leitao (6-foot-4, 234 pounds) visited Arkansas on Saturday to look over the program and watch the Razorbacks scrimmage.
"I came up to check it out because they are in the SEC, have a great program and fit the bill for what I am looking for in terms of how they use their tight ends," said Leitao, who had previously visited Arkansas last season for its win over Auburn.
"I got a chance to check out the weight area, the equipment room, and the scrimmage went really, really well, and they threw the ball to the tight ends just like I knew they would."
Leitao's father, Dave, is in his second season of his second stint as head coach at DePaul. He also coached at Virginia and served as an assistant for Tulsa coach Frank Haith for two years at Missouri and one season at Tulsa.
Reese Leitao has 13 offers including Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Duke, Houston, Illinois, Iowa State, Purdue, Minnesota, Navy, Central Florida, Arkansas State, Texas State and Miami (Ohio).
Leitao, who had 14 catches for 215 yards and four touchdowns last season, is also drawing interest from Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Alabama, where he plans to visit Saturday.
"Arkansas coaches told me that they wanted to come to my school this spring and evaluate me and my speed and my ability to play in their offense," Leitao said. "If they don't offer this spring then I will come over to their camp this summer for at least a half a day because I really want to get an offer and feel like their offense is a great fit for me."
Arkansas sees Leitao -- the state of Oklahoma's top tight end prospect per the Tulsa World -- as a possible fit for one of its two tight end spots.
"They have two different type tight ends and see me as a Y, a tight end that moves around, splits out and catches a lot of passes," Leitao said. "That sounds great to me."
Jenks has won four straight Class 6A state championships, 13 in the past 20 years and has gone 36-3 the past three seasons.
"We lost a lot of starters on both offense and defense, but we have a lot of talent coming back and coming, and we always expect to be good and compete for the state title," Leitao said. "Next year won't be any different."
Sports on 04/14/2016