FAYETTEVILLE — After laying eyes on Blayne Toll and watching him run in offseason conditioning, Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman thought it was best to move the early enrollee to the offensive side of the ball.
Pittman noted that Toll swapping positions – from defensive line to tight end – was also a result of the Razorbacks landing Xavier Kelly, a 6-5, 311-pound graduate transfer defensive lineman who played three seasons at Clemson. At the time, the freshman's presence added another body to a relatively thin and inexperienced tight ends room.
"We talked to Blayne and he was very positive about the move," Pittman said in March. "He’s done a really good job over there in the walkthroughs. We felt like we needed to move him if we were going to move him so he didn’t get behind the installs and things of that nature. We moved him over there, and he’s a talented guy.
"He looks like a tight end, and he can run."
As the Razorbacks approach the start of preseason practice on Aug. 17, the former Hazen star has reverted back to the position Arkansas recruited him at – defensive end. This decision from the coaching staff stemmed from another of the program's 2020 signees not making it to campus.
Jaqualin McGhee, a three-star defensive line prospect from Peach County High School in Fort Valley, Ga., is not expected to join the Razorbacks this season. He signed with Arkansas over Cincinnati, Kansas State, West Virginia and other programs.
"Jaqualin is not on our team," Pittman said Thursday on a Zoom conference with reporters when asked about McGhee's status. "I don’t believe that he’ll be on our football team."
The coach added that when McGhee "decided that he didn’t want to play football anymore," the staff moved Toll back to the defensive line. He is confident Toll is going to become a really good player at the position.
He will wear No. 96 this fall, the number Pittman wore as a defensive end at Pittsburg State in Kansas.
"I told him he had big shoes to fill if he wore 96 and he took it," Pittman said. "We were just trying to maybe kind of make it loose a little bit because we wanted him to go back over to defense. To be honest with you, that’s where he wanted to be, but he was so unselfish he went to tight end.
"We put 96 on him and moved him back over to defense and he’s fine. He’s doing really good."
In April, following Toll's transition to tight end, quarterback Feleipe Franks said he thought the freshman could thrive playing any position.
"He’s obviously just a freak when you look at him," Franks added. "I mean, you’re like, ‘Oh, you’re this young? OK, that’s weird.’ You know what I mean? Obviously, he’s like a freak of nature. He’s a big guy, an athletic guy."
Although he said it is difficult to pinpoint standouts given the Razorbacks' workouts in recent weeks have been limited to walkthroughs, he is "most happy" with the defensive line group. Kelly, Jonathan Marshall, Isaiah Nichols, Eric Gregory and Julius Coates came to mind first.
"Those guys, I’m just saying what my mind might have thought where they would be at this point, I don’t think that about them," he said. "I think they’re big, they’re guys that understand (what we're doing). They can move for their size.
"I just feel like they can be a good group."