A few days after visiting the University of Arkansas on April 9, highly recruited 4-star offensive lineman Miles McVay included the Hogs in his top 12.
McVay, 6-6, 358 pounds, of East St. Louis (Ill.) High School, narrowed his more than 30 scholarship offers to Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, LSU, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, Southern Cal, Auburn, Illinois, Florida and Michigan State.
His father, Amondo McVay. accompanied his son on the trip to Fayetteville and said he was impressed with Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman’s background along with offensive line coach Cody Kennedy.
“The coaching staff is really cool,” Amondo said. “They’re setting themselves up with great stability. You have one of the best offensive line coaches in the country as the head coach and then on top of that you have Coach Kennedy, who’s been with him and who’s learned and has experience and is a great offensive line coach. So you almost get a two for one in the development of the player.”
Amondo compared Arkansas’ ability to develop an offensive lineman to Jackson State Coach Deon Sanders’ ability to get the best out of a defensive back.
“Coach Pittman is one of the best,” Amondo said. “Who wouldn’t I want to learn from Coach Pittman and Coach Kennedy because I know they can prepare me to go to the next level and also develop me so I can be the best player I can be.”
Northwest Arkansas is routinely rated having one of best business climates in the nation while also being one of the top 10 best places to live.
U.S. News & World Report reported last summer Fayetteville was rated the fourth best place to live for 2021. It was sixth year in a row for Fayetteville to be in the top 10.
The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers area ranked eighth among the Milken Institute’s 2022 best performing cities by charting economic resilience and opportunity.
Kennedy touted the growth of the area along with the companies based in Northwest Arkansas.
“That’s what Coach was telling me, it’s one of the fastest growing areas in the state,” Amondo said. “Coach Kennedy was looking to buy a house and he left practice and they were supposed to look at four houses and before they could get out of practice, three of the houses were sold.”
Pittman’s persona impressed Amondo and his son.
“I tell you one thing, I really like Coach Pittman,” Amondo said. “Coach Pittman gives you that feel like trusting, loving feel that you get from your grandfather. I love that about him. I like the way he’s a straight shooter. He tells you the truth and I just like the way he has that compassion.”
If his son chose to be a Razorback, Amondo said he would be comfortable seeing him in Fayetteville.
“I’ll just put it like this, every place has something special about it and you get past the point of facilities and all the other stuff that a lot of schools have because everybody has it,” he said. “Most schools have all that fancy stuff, so it’s back to what school can offer your child the same type of push that you would give him at home with the same type of moral character, kind of like the culture you have at home. You see those kind of things when you go to a school and it makes you feel really comfortable.”
Amondo, a former walk-on at Missouri, said he and his son are working on a second visit to Fayetteville. Terry Hawthorne, Arkansas’ defensive quality control analyst, played at East St. Louis before going on to star at Illinois as a defensive back.
“On top of being a coach from home, he is like a big brother to Miles,” Amondo said.
Miles, who has a 3.7 grade-point average while taking AP classes, comes from a family where education is stressed.
“Watching him grow into the man he’s becoming is another proud thing,” Amondo said. “There’s certain things we emphasize in the family.”