Before he makes the move to Fayetteville to begin his college football career later this month, former Maumelle offensive lineman and Razorback signee Andrew Chamblee has one more high school game.
It’s a big one as Chamblee (6-7, 300 pounds) is one of four Arkansas signees playing for the East squad in Saturday’s All-American Bowl (formerly known as the U.S. Army All-American Game) in San Antonio.
Other Arkansas signees in the game are receivers Isaiah Sategna of Fayetteville and Sam M'bake of Kennesaw (Ga.) North Cobb, and long snapper Eli Stein of Cambridge, Wis.
The game, featuring 100 of the nation’s top prep players, will be televised by NBC from the Alamodome with a noon start.
“I am definitely blessed to say that I have made it to this game,” Chamblee said. “To have the opportunity to play against other future college players is an honor. I am really looking forward to going up against some of the best defensive linemen in the country.”
The Razorback contingent is pumping its chest in practices this week after Arkansas went 9-4 this season under second-year head coach Sam Pittman and downed Penn State 24-10 in the Outback Bowl.
“I was traveling and only got to see a half, but it was the good half,” Chamblee said of a rally from 10-7 deficit at intermission.
“Coach Pittman and his staff are doing what they said they were going to do when they first started recruiting me in the beginning. He said he is going to put it back on the national map where it belongs and where it needs to be at.”
Pittman is doing that with a stated intent of making the offensive line bigger and stronger with Arkansas signing 11 offensive lineman since Pittman’s arrival, including four in the 2022 class.
Chamblee, who has a 7-foot wingspan, graded 91.9% this season, had 22.5 pancake blocks, 27.5 knockdowns and 10 drive blocks.
His dad, Jonathan, retired as a sergeant first-class in September 2014 after serving 26 years in the Army and part of his training program included pulling son pulling dad with a harness in a GMC Sierra 1500 in his neighborhood.
He chose Arkansas over Florida, Penn State, Auburn, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Michigan State and others.
“It was just all about putting in the hard work day in and day out to get to a point I could play in this game and play on the college level,” Chamblee said. “It was well worth it all.”
Chamblee will be sharing a quad housing unit with sophomore offensive linemen Terry Wells and Devon Manuel, and freshman Eli Hederson, an early enrollee along with fellow 2022 offensive line signees E’Marion Harris and Patrick Kutas. Chamblee’s roommate this week is Stein.
“Coach Pittman has definitely recruited some great offensive lineman from both in state and out of of state,” Chamblee said. “I think we are going to do great things.”
Chamblee believes enrolling early will be of great benefit to him.
“I think it is going to help me tremendously getting into things early,” Chamblee said. “Hopefully I can end up starting as a true freshman as long as I work. It will be a weight lifted off my shoulders knowing what I will know what needs to happen and knowing what to do.”
Maumelle defensive tackle and fellow Arkansas signee Nico Davillier (6-5, 275) is playing basketball and will enroll this summer.
Davillier was named the MVP of the Neosho (Mo.) Holiday Basketball Classic last week and helped lead the Hornets to the Class 5A championship game last season.
“He is definitely an athlete, one of the best athletes out there in my mind,” Chamblee said. “It is also just amazing how he works both on the football field and the basketball court.”
Davillier, who was originally from New Orleans and moved to Arkansas at the age of 2 after Hurricane Katrina, chose Arkansas over Nebraska, Oklahoma, Georgia, Auburn, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Penn State, Purdue and Tennessee.
He had 74 tackles, 26 tackles for lost yardage, 2 sacks, 15 quarterback hurries, 3 forced fumbles, 1 blocked punt as a senior.
Maumelle went 9-3 in 2020, but stumbled to 4-8 this season.
“I know that just going against each other in practice every day made us better,” Chamblee said. “It was tough to go 4-8 our senior season, but I felt like we left a legacy at school even with the bad last year. It’s all good as long as you leave something behind that is good that is all that really matters.”