FAYETTEVILLE — Defensive end Princely Umanmielen came into Arkansas’ camp with two scholarship offers and left with his third after impressing the coaches with his athleticism and ability to make plays.
Umanmielen, 6-4, 248 pounds of Manor, Texas had offers from Tulsa and Texas-El Paso along with interest from Texas, TCU, Baylor, Houston and others coming into the camp.
“It means a lot because it’s pretty big school and it will be a great opportunity,” he said. “I actually like this campus so yeah, it would be a great opportunity.”
He played in nine games and recorded 15 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 1 recovered fumble last year. Umanmielen turned heads by running an electronic 4.61 seconds in the 40 yard dash at the Razorback Night Camp.
“I had to warm up pretty good before it and I just felt like I had to come in and show out because all the eyes were on me and they were letting me know that before I went so I had to show out,” Umanmielen said.
Umanmielen liked Arkansas’ facilities and the speech Coach Chad Morris gave to the campers after the end of the day.
“I liked how he talked about they're graduating…and how he talks about life after football,” he said.
He plans to attend camps at Houston, Baylor, Texas, TCU along with some others. Umanmielen enjoyed working with defensive end coach Steve Caldwell
“I really like his coaching style and how he coached us,” Umanmielen said. “It was pretty head on. I really liked him.”
Umanmielen’s initial impression of Arkansas wasn’t so good, but it changed once he got to campus.
“I was like ‘Dang this is the middle of nowhere’ and I walked into the facilities and they were actually way nicer that I thought they were going to be,” he said.