Highly recruited cornerback Ryan Watts has Arkansas in his top three after visiting the Razorbacks on Saturday.
"It was a great visit actually," Watts said. “They had a lot of nice things. Everything around there was great. What stood out the most was the people there. Everybody was nice and just a family atmosphere. Everybody was just so cool.”
Watts, 6-2, 187 of Little Elm, Texas, now has more than 30 scholarship offers from schools such as Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Utah, Baylor, Minnesota, Washington and others.
“It surpassed what I expected,” Watts said of Arkansas. “It looked a lot better than I would’ve thought. It looked really nice down there. Everything was organized and set out perfectly.”
Arkansas is now his his top three along with Texas A&M and Oklahoma.
“They were high on my list before, but after this visit I have them up there like in my top three schools now,” Watt said. “They’re definitely for consideration throughout the whole process.”
His parents were equally impressed.
“My parents loved it,” he said. “They noticed how the coaches and how everybody was so friendly. That stood out to them a lot, too. We can’t wait to come back.”
Watts and his parents were blown away by the people of Fayetteville.
“We went to a restaurant, and just how people would come up to me and just talk about how they’re happy for me and how Arkansas is a great place and they treat everybody like family,” Watts said. “It stood out a lot to me.”
He plans to make an official visit to Arkansas on May 3-5. His good friend and cornerback Jarhari Rogers of Arlington, Texas, will also visit that weekend.
“Jahari has to come up here,” Watts said. “I’m going to tell him a lot of good things about this place. I’m going to boost Arkansas. I’m going to put in a lot of good words about them.”
Arkansas cornerbacks coach Mark Smith was the first to offer Watts a scholarship to a Power 5 program.
“I have a great relaltionship with him,” Watts said. “He’s one of the few coaches I feel like I can really trust. He was there for me early in my process. He really started everything. He has a lot of my trust and I feel like I can come to him for anything.
"He’s one of my favorite coaches actually.”