The Recruiting Guy

Hogs' O-line target a connoisseur of pancakes

Arkansas offensive line coach Dustin Fry directs his players Saturday, March 10, 2018, during practice at the university practice field in Fayetteville.

Junior offensive lineman and University of Arkansas target Andrew Raym is use to dominating the opponent, but Friday night he took it to another level.

Raym, 6-4, 305 pounds, of Broken Arrow, Okla., amassed a school-recorded 26 pancake blocks in the Tigers' 47-20 victory over defending Class 6A state champions Owasso on Friday night.

The offense ran 63 running plays, which would translate to Raym pancaking his defender 41 percent of the time. He was an equal opportunity pancaker with four different Owasso defensive linemen lining up across from him.

"They kept rotating dudes in and out of that spot because I kicked them off the field," Raym said.

He and his offensive line teammates also set a school record of 131 pancake blocks Friday.

Raym has scholarship offers from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and numerous others. He recorded 123 pancake blocks as a sophomore, including one game of 24.

"It's just kind of want I do," Raym said.

The battered and bruised defenders didn't trash talk.

"They knew not to talk because they knew they couldn't talk anything," Raym said.

Raym, who has 51 pancake blocks for the 3-0 Tigers, wants to top last year's season total.

"I'm trying to go for 200-plus this year," he said.

Broken Arrow Coach David Alexander said there's nothing Raym can't do as an offensive lineman.

"He's so big and so athletic that he can get out on the edge, we can pull him, we can run screens where he's in the open field," Alexander said. "He can do anything because he's such a good athlete."

The Tigers run the ball behind Raym the majority of the time. That was evident in the final 7:51 of Friday's game.

"We were at our own 25-yard line and ran the ball 12 to 14 plays in a row and got the ball at their 1-yard line and took a couple of knees to end it, and Andrew led the charge," Alexander said. "We ran the ball behind him almost every time that last series."

CBS Sports Network national recruiting analyst Tom Lemming rates Raym a five-star prospect and one of the top five offensive linemen for the 2020 class. He believes Raym is a rare prospect that could make a major impact in college as a freshman.

"On film, he is an elite prospect, and in person I liked his attitude and work ethic," said Lemming, who has been covering the national scene since 1978. "He can play tackle or guard. He's a smash-mouth type of player who never lets up. In my opinion, he's a difference-maker."

Raym, who visited Arkansas on Feb. 24 and again July 27, looks to have more games with 20-plus pancake blocks.

"Honestly, it's getting to the point where it's almost like I expect it myself," Raym said. "That's what I push myself to do in order to accomplish what I want to accomplish."

Alexander enjoys having Raym's dominating ability on the team.

"When you have a guy like that it doesn't make it easy, but it makes play calling easy when you need a few yards," he said.

Email Richard Davenport at rdavenport@arkansasonline.com

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Sports on 09/11/2018