With the season complete, University of Arkansas Coach Chad Morris and staff will turn their full attention to recruiting and finishing out the 2019 class while also focusing on future classes.
The NCAA contact period begins today and runs until Feb. 2, with a dead period of Dec. 17 to Jan. 10 sandwiched in between.
The Hogs have 24 public commitments and two private commitments, and they have plans to add three more to the class for a total of 29. The NCAA maximum that schools can sign each year is 25, but because Arkansas inked 17 prospects in the 2018 class, the Razorbacks can count back four signees.
Position coaches can see each prospect once a week during the six-week contact period. The head coach is allowed just one visit.
"Counting the silent commitments, we have twenty-six guys committed to us," Arkansas director of recruiting Taylor Edwards said. "We'll in-home with the head coach and our position coaches. We'll go see guys once a week, and Coach Morris will go see them one time."
NCAA rules forbid Edwards from mentioning prospects by name, but it's known the Hogs hope to land Clemson transfer quarterback Kelly Bryant, and junior-college offensive linemen Myron Cunningham of Iowa Central Community College and Chibueze Nwanna of Lackawanna College in Pennsylvania.
"We got three guys targeted we're trying to shore up, two junior-college offensive linemen and quarterback," Edwards said.
The coaches also will visit the schools of junior prospects the Hogs are actively recruiting.
"We'll invest our time in area recruiting, making sure we hit on the 2020 guys that are already on our board," Edwards said.
Arkansas will host Cunningham, Nwanna and others for official visits from Dec. 7-9 while also hosting prospects on the Dec. 14-16 weekend.
The Hogs plan to entertain recruits on the weekends of Jan. 18-20 and 25-27. The Razorbacks will also have numerous underclassmen on campus.
"We'll have prospect days sprinkled in there in January as well," Edwards said. "Go ahead and get a jump start on the 2020 junior class and sophomore guys. Get them on campus and show them what it's all about up here."
Receiver commitment Shamar Nash will receive the first in-home visit of the contact period tonight from Morris and receivers coach Justin Stepp.
"We have a team meeting on Monday at 7 a.m., and everybody else will hit the road after that," Edwards said.
The 2019 class has a chance to be the best for Arkansas since the era of recruiting services. The class currently is rated between No. 12 and No. 17 by various recruiting services.
The members of the Hogs' class have been very active on social media trying to convince others to join them in Fayetteville.
"They've done a really good job of recruiting each other, and then once they got the guy in the boat, they did a really good job of going after the next one," Edwards said. "They've kind of helped us sell our mission and vision for this program through social media. We're indebted because they haven't given up on us, and we certainly aren't going to give up on them.
"We're very excited and proud of this class. If we can get these last three pieces to this puzzle, I told Coach Morris the other day we will have done an unbelievable job considering the circumstances for us to bring in this caliber of class."
The early signing period is Dec. 19-21, while the February signing day is the 6th.
"We won't have many guys -- maybe four to six, I would say -- that would sign in February," Edwards said.
Email Richard Davenport at rdavenport@arkansasonline.com
Sports on 11/25/2018