There may be a lot of hot air and gridlock in Washington, D.C., but there are also some good high school football prospects.
St. John’s College High School defensive end Caleb Okechukwu (6-3, 248 pounds) will take an official visit to Arkansas this weekend. Arkansas head coach Chad Morris and Razorback defensive line coach John Scott both visited Okechuwku on Thursday morning.
Okechukwu has already visited Syracuse (Jan. 26-28), Texas (Jan. 19-21) and Massachusetts (Dec. 8-10). He has additional offers from Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Washington, Virginia and others.
“His last two visits have been Texas and Syracuse and is now taking this one to Arkansas so those are really the three schools he is looking at the hardest,” said St. John’s head coach Joe Casemento, whose team finished No. 17 nationally in the USA Today Super 25. “ A lot of schools got on him late.”
Scott has been the lead recruiter for Okechukwu, who the Razorbacks offered on Jan. 13.
He is a late-rising prospect that began to get attention after a solid effort in the Under Armour All-American Game.
“He is a great young person and a great young football player that did a lot for us,” Casemento said. “I think he has a lot of versatility. Depending on what a school needs, he could play defensive end, linebacker or even put on some weight and move inside.”
Okechukwu, who some schools are recruiting as a linebacker, had 81 tackles, 16 sacks and 38 tackles for loss as a senior.
St. John’s won the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference champion with a 30-7 win over Gonzaga and finished the season 9-2.
“Caleb was a big part of our success this season and I now he is going to be a big part of somebody’s in college now,” Casemento said. “We had a lot of people come through here and look at our kids and he’s one of the best.”
In addition to Okechukwu, Arkansas will host quarterback John Stephen Jones (5-11, 180) this weekend. Jones, the grandson of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, led Highland Park to consecutive state championships in Texas as a junior and senior.