The Recruiting Guy

Arkansas staff visit makes Spivey rethink visit plans

Arkansas' offensive staff pose with running back commitment A'Monate Spivey and family.

Arkansas sent a strong message to running back commitment A’Montae Spivey and his family with the offensive staff visiting Spivey’s school and home on Monday.

“It was a memorable moment for me and my family,” Spivey said. “Just for them valuing me so much to fly down here like they did. They came strong. It showed how much they believe in what I can do and they believe in me, period. It gave me a boost of confidence.”

Spivey, 6-1, 207 pounds, 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash, of Phenix City (Ala.) Central, committed to the Razorbacks over the summer while holding scholarship offers from LSU, Purdue, Cincinnati and others.

Ole Miss extended an offer to Spivey on Nov. 18 and has been planning to visit the Rebels on Jan. 26, but after the Arkansas visit, that’s not certain.

“We’re still debating that,” Spivey said. “We’re talking about it right now.”

The day was full of good times.

“We connected, we had fun,” Spivey said.

Spivey rushed 183 times for 1,363 yards and 18 touchdowns in the first 13 games before the Red Devils dominated Thompson 52-7 to go undefeated and win the Class 7A state title.

Part of the fun included offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, associate head coach and running backs coach Jeff Traylor, offensive line coach Dustin Fry, tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr. and receivers coach Justin Stepp getting into his collection of mail.

“They were talking about the mail they’ve sent me,” Spivey said. “So I took the box of mail I’ve received from different colleges and they were putting it on my wall in my living room. We have pictures of me playing football all through high school and those guys just started hanging up all their mail up on the wall. They opened the letters and if they wrote it, they would hang it up on the wall.

“I was laughing. It was funny to me. They were hanging up stuff from Thanksgiving and Christmas and all of that.”