FAYETTEVILLE — If Arkansas is fortunate enough to land Iowa Western redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Noah Banks, Reivers offensive line coach Donnie Woods feels like the Razorbacks will be getting one of the best junior college linemen out there.
Banks (6-7, 295) was in Fayetteville this weekend on an official visit, making the Florida native and mid-term graduate the second Woods’ product to trek to Fayetteville along with former Razorback star Sebastian Tretola.
He picked up an offer from Arkansas on Friday to go along with ones from Iowa State, Missouri and Middle Tennessee State. He is receiving interest from Oklahoma, TCU, Nebraska, Auburn, Mississippi State, Memphis and Maryland.
“He’s been great for us,” Woods said. “He transferred from Murray State because he thought he could play at a higher level. He is big, he is athletic, he is smart, he is tough, he has all the intangibles that you want in an offensive lineman and he works at it.
“He takes his God-given talent and his size and he goes to work every day. When a kid like that who is big as he is and works as hard as he does, you've got yourself a pretty good offensively lineman.”
Iowa Western (4-1) was off this past weekend and is ranked ninth nationally heading into next Saturday’s home game with Dodge City Community College.
The Reivers have two top-notch offensive tackles in Banks - who played his high school football at Pensacola West Florida Tech - and TCU commit Anthony McKinney (6-7, 340). They were both dominant in Iowa Western’s last game, a 57-14 whipping of Coffeyville Community College back on Sept. 23.
“I am in a pretty good position here at Iowa Western,” Woods said. “I believe I have two of the best junior college offensive tackles in the nation. It’s not every year you have one of those guys, much less two. You don’t see those type of guys come around that often and it is very similar to Sebastian Tretola.
“When Tretola stepped on our campus and played a few games, you could just tell he was a different animal from most. Those are the guys that you see play extremely well in the SEC. We have confidence that Noah can do the same thing.”
Tretola, a guard, started his career at Nevada before matriculating to Iowa Western, going on to Arkansas and playing in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans.
“I can't really compare Tretola and Banks because they played different positions,” Woods said. “Noah is a definite tackle. I can see him doing very well in the SEC.”
Woods notes that Banks is better in pass protection right now, but would benefit from a semester in an major college weight room.
“I think from a pass protection standpoint, he has great feet and he is very athletic,” Woods said. “Every week he lines up against a guy that is going to play Division I football and he has done a phenomenal job against those guys.
“Things he needs to work on are probably in the run game. I think a lot of that is just going to be him just getting stronger by being in the weight room. I think that is one of the reasons he left Murray State. He wasn’t being developed the way he wanted in the weight room. Once he gets into a program - and let’s say its Arkansas - he is going to really fill out and that is going to help him in the run game.”