The Recruiting Guy

Top 2021 QB looking forward second trip to Arkansas

Aaron McLaughlin

Highly-regarded sophomore quarterback Aaron McLaughlin is looking forward to his second trip to Fayetteville next month.

McLaughlin, 6-4, 225 pounds, of Alpharetta (Ga.) Denmark attended an Arkansas camp last summer and was “blown away” by the trip. He wants to build off of last year’s visit when he makes his way to Arkansas on March 9.

“I just want to keep building the relationships I have with the coaches,” McLaughlin said of his upcoming visit, “and get a feel of Arkansas during the school year.”

He played this past season at Buford High School in Suwanee before transferring to Denmark in January. Denmark Coach Terry Crowder, a Fort Smith native and University of Arkansas graduate, is thrilled to have McLaughlin in the program.

"He's obviously a great talent, but he's also a great kid," Crowder said. "He has fit in seamlessly into the high school. I have a quarterback last year that's coming back and he threw for 2,800 yards and he and Aaron sit at the same table. So it's just great to see that. They're both going to compete. Aaron is very talented."

McLaughlin has been talking to Arkansas coach Chad Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock.

“I talk to Coach Craddock and Morris a lot,” McLaughlin said. “We have a strong relationship. We always just catch up and talk about what’s going on in our lives.”

He has been on the national radar for several years. He received his first scholarship offers from Georgia State and Missouri as a seventh grader. He has accumulated numerous other scholarship offers from schools like Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Penn State, Michigan, Ole Miss, Florida State, Texas A&M,UCLA and Southern Cal.

National recruiting analyst TomLemming rates McLaughlin a four-star-plus prospect.

Denmark receiver Ze’Vian Capers, who also plans to visit Arkansas on March 9, became the Hogs’s first commitment for the 2020 class on Feb. 8. Since then Capers has been in McLaughlin’s ear about the Razorbacks.

“Yes he is, he just talks about how we would be such a good duo,” McLaughlin said.