FRISCO, Texas — Chad Morris' staff was the first to offer highly recruited receiver Elijah Higgins while at SMU in the spring of last year, and he hasn’t forgotten that.
Higgins, 6-3, 215 of Austin (Texas) Bowie, visited the Razorbacks on June 16 and was able to catch up with the staff and spend time with receivers coach Justin Stepp and receivers graduate assistant Kelvin Bolden.
“That was great,” Higgins said. “I talked to the coaches at SMU. That was my first offer, so I had to take a trip out there and check out for myself. Coach Stepp, always been talking to him. Coach Bolden is a GA over there and I know Chad Morris really well because he was at SMU and I visited there a couple of times. I know what they have in store and the offense they run and what they do with their players.”
He along with other receivers, quarterbacks and tight ends worked out at The Opening today at the Dallas Cowboys headquarters.
Arkansas, Ohio State, Auburn, Florida, Stanford, Michigan, Ole Miss and Notre Dame are just some of his other offers. Being a bigger receiver, Higgins likes what Morris and Stepp did for former SMU receiver Courtland Sutton, who was taken in the second round of the NFL Draft in April.
“Courtland Sutton should've been a first round draft pick,” Higgins said. “Just seeing what they do with bigger receivers and what they do offensively getting the ball in people’s hands, so it’s really intriguing for me.”
ESPN rates Higgins a 4-star prospect, No. 24 receiver and No. 154 overall prospect in the nation for the 2019 class. He recorded 66 receptions for 1,053 yards and 15 touchdowns the past two seasons
He said the trip to Fayetteville helped the Hogs.
“Oh for sure, yeah,” Higgins said. “That’s kind of like how all visits go really. Once you go there you get a better feel for what’s going on and it’s more realistic than just seeing it or just talking to the coaches. I already had a relationship with the coaches before I stepped on campus so it was really just me seeing it for myself.”
He’s only taken an official visit to Ohio State along with unofficial trips to Arkansas, Auburn, Florida and others.
“I’m really not taking any more visits until when I commit,” he said.
He plans to go home and narrow his list down before announcing his college decision in the near future.
“Within the next couple of days after The Opening, I’m going to go home and I have a edit coming up,” Higgins said. “It will be a top schools list and everything will be with it. It might be five or six. It’s not going to be anything crazy. It’s going to be the schools I’ll be focusing on so we’ll see.
"I have eight right now, so I’m really narrowing it down and figuring things out.”