FAYETTEVILLE — Now that the NCAA has extended the recruiting dead period through May 31, Arkansas could be in line to land a second Ellenwood (Ga.) Cedar Grove standout sooner rather than later.
Defensive end Joshua White (6-5, 260), who is a 2022 early enrollee candidate, confirmed Wednesday he planned to make an earlier decision since official on-campus college visits will not happen until at least June.
White, a teammate of athlete and recent Razorbacks pledge Rashod Dubinion (5-10, 180, 4.3), has narrowed his list to Arkansas, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Mississippi State and Nebraska.
“I am still at those six schools,” White said. “I just sent out another tweet that I am going to go ahead and commit earlier, now in April instead of June. I am talking to all the coaches now and just taking it all in. But that’s my plan now.”
One edge Arkansas has is former Cedar Grove head coach Jimmy Smith, who is now the Razorbacks' running backs coach under Sam Pittman.
“My relationship is great with those guys and that program is awesome,” White said. “They are developing so much stuff and I want to be part of that if I do commit there. They call me every day, text me every day. I am just going through the process.”
White, ranked 222nd nationally by Rivals, and Dubinion have talked about playing college football at Arkansas, which is also recruiting another pair of Cedar Grove stars in wide receiver Janiran Bonner (6-3, 200) and defensive tackle Christen Miller (6-5, 285).
The quartet are all four-star prospects and ranked in either 247 Sports' or Rivals’ top 225 players nationally.
“(Dubinion) is a dog,” White said. “You can play him anywhere on the field against any kind of defense and that boy is going to show out. He is the real deal – offense, defense, returning it. He is just a great player.”
White played his sophomore season at Decatur (Ga.) Columbia before making the move to Cedar Grove, which has won three of the last five state championships behind Smith (2016, 2018) and Miguel Patrick (2019).
“I played great in what was my first year at Cedar Grove,” White said. “I knew I needed to play up to expectations when you come to a school like this, and I think I did play great.”
White led the Saints in sacks and tackles for lost yardage in a 2020 season that ended with a 16-13 loss to Crisp County, which featured current Arkansas freshman early enrollee linebacker Christopher Paul.
Cedar Grove won 8 of its 9 games this season and entered the playoffs ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, but it had to its forfeit four victories due to an ineligible player.
White had 80 tackles and 11 sacks as a sophomore for Columbia.
“I am just training right now to get better all around,” White said. “If I do get better, I am still going to keep grinding and get strength, speed and the ability to get to the football more.”
White admits that he and the other Saints’ stars involved with Arkansas are disappointed that they have not been able to take official visits in over a year.
“It’s been bad,” White said. “It has hurt a lot of people. We all don’t want to go to a place we don’t know anything about. We want to visits schools, but we just can’t do it right now. It is hurting us right now, but we’ll just make the best decisions we can.”