Even in the Wild West era of the transfer portal, trades aren’t technically a thing in college football, but Arkansas’ addition of Blake Boda essentially completed a three-way trade.
The Coastal Carolina transfer announced his commitment to the Razorbacks on Tuesday and the school officially announced his signing shortly after.
Boda once again gives Arkansas four scholarship quarterbacks for the upcoming 2024 season, as Jacolby Criswell opted to hit the transfer portal following spring ball.
Interestingly, Criswell chose to return to North Carolina for his final two years of eligibility. He fills a need for the Tar Heels, who lost freshman Tad Hudson to the portal in mid-April. On Monday, Hudson announced he’d head three hours south to Conway, S.C., to play at Coastal Carolina, which needed a quarterback after the departure of — you guessed it — Boda.
Now with the Razorbacks, Boda is the sixth transfer portal addition for Sam Pittman and his staff since the end of spring. That group of newcomers will join 13 transfers already on campus.
As things currently stand, the 2024 Arkansas football roster is at 79 scholarship players. That means Pittman still has six spots to fill before the season.
Blake Boda’s Connection to Bobby Petrino
When he was hired as Arkansas’ new offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino’s first task was to find a quarterback to replace KJ Jefferson. He did just that by going into the transfer portal and landing Taylen Green from Boise State.
Given his 6-foot-6 frame and dual-threat ability, not to mention him earning MWC Freshman of the Year in 2022, Green had multiple suitors when he decided to leave the Broncos.
However, the Razorbacks were able to leverage his connection to Petrino in their favor. The offensive guru actually recruited Green out of high school when he was the head coach at Missouri State, but he later admitted that he knew an FCS school had no chance of signing him. Still, it helped Petrino land him the second go around.
Tasked with finding a quarterback for depth purposes following spring ball, Petrino once again went back to his connections to help Arkansas fill out its roster.
Before committing to Coastal Carolina, Blake Boda initially pledged to UNLV, where Petrino was briefly the offensive coordinator for Barry Odom. Petrino first offered Boda when he was the head coach at Missouri State, so he clearly liked something he saw from the Florida product.
Even though he was a two-star recruit on Rivals and low three-star recruit on 247Sports, Boda certainly had a lot of success in high school.
As a senior, the lefty completed 270 of 414 passes (65.2%) for 4,028 yards, 49 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while leading Cocoa to a Class 2S state title. He also added five more scores on the ground. That earned him the classification’s Player of the Year honor.
This isn’t the first time he’s transferred schools, either, as he began his high school career at Seabreeze High in Daytona Beach, Fla.
After Petrino left UNLV to become the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M, Boda flipped his commitment to Coastal Carolina. He chose the Chanticleers over the Rebels and South Florida, where he also visited.
In his lone season at Coastal Carolina, Boda appeared in three games, preserving his redshirt. He played 13 total snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, and completed his only pass attempt for a gain of 14 yards.
What it Means for Arkansas Football
It is easy for fans to dismiss the commitment of a player like Blake Boda, who wasn’t highly recruited out of high school and didn’t play much at a smaller school.
However, it’s important to remember what he is: Depth at the quarterback position. Arkansas doesn’t expect him to come in and challenge Taylen Green for the starting job this year.
Boda is a transfer commitment much more along the lines of Cade Fortin, who the Razorbacks initially brought in as a walk-on just to add depth to the quarterback room.
The situation isn’t quite as dire as it was back then, but Arkansas would like to have four scholarship quarterbacks to, in the worst-case scenario, fill in if there is a rash of injuries, or at the very least be capable of running the scout team in practice.
Of course, it isn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility that Boda pushes redshirt freshman Malachi Singleton and true freshman KJ Jackson for the backup job this year and starting job down the road. That won’t be easy, though, because Singleton and Jackson were both heralded four-star recruits, but it’s worth mentioning again that Bobby Petrino clearly liked him enough to recruit him at both Missouri State and UNLV.
Blake Boda Highlights
Check out some highlights of recent Arkansas football transfer portal commit Blake Boda from his senior year of high school:
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