With Missouri wide receiver Courtney Crutchfield’s entry into the transfer portal, Arkansas football has another chance to bring home the coveted in-state talent.
The Pine Bluff native was a top-100 prospect in the Class of 2024 who was committed to Arkansas before backing off that pledge and eventually signing with the Tigers in December 2023. The talented freshman was underused by head coach Eli Drinkwitz and didn’t record any stats in 2024, which led him to seek out a change of scenery.
According to reports, the Razorbacks are the runaway frontrunner to land Crutchfield and bring him home. If Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman succeeds in that endeavor, the 6-foot-2 standout would have the chance to become the next in a long line of great homegrown receivers to star for the Hogs.
While the state of Arkansas isn’t known as a football talent hub in some aspects, it has certainly punched above its weight at the wide receiver position. From Jarius Wright and Joe Adams during the Bobby Petrino era to more recent phenoms like Treylon Burks – the Natural State sure knows how to produce a wideout.
It turns out that one of the keys to landing Crutchfield this time around will be through a former Razorback representing the Pine Bluff stud as his agent.
Arkansas Alums Turned College Football Agents
Will Gragg, a fellow Pine Bluff native and former Arkansas tight end, exhausted his college eligibility before being able to reap the benefits of NIL. But he now uses the lessons he took from football to help athletes navigate through their careers.
Currently residing in Dallas, Gragg works in client management as the football coordinator for Milk & Honey, which was exclusively a song-writing agency out of Los Angeles until the company added a sports division in 2021. Milk & Honey represents stars like Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and Denver Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton as well as former Razorbacks like Kam Curl (Los Angeles Rams) and Montaric Brown (Jacksonville Jaguars).
In the past few years, Gragg and fellow Class of 2015 Razorback signee Rawleigh Williams III have dipped into representing players as NIL agents. The duo represents around 15 college athletes as NIL agents, including Crutchfield. They took him on as a client in August, but Gragg has known Crutchfield for years. Gragg’s father, Kelvin, is the assistant superintendent in the Pine Bluff School District and the family has longtime ties to that area.
“It was a match made in heaven,” Gragg said of his partnership with Crutchfield. “I helped him throughout his recruitment to guide him to make the decision he wanted to make. He was just an inner-city kid who wanted, and needed, guidance.”
While Gragg didn’t experience the NIL era, he did transfer schools during his career – though it wasn’t the transfer “portal” as we know it today. Coming out of high school, he arrived in Fayetteville as an early enrollee in 2015 and did not see any action in his first two seasons while competing for playing time against a tight end room that included future pros Hunter Henry and Jeremy Sprinkle. After earning his degree from Arkansas, Gragg transferred to Pittsburgh, where he was granted immediate eligibility as a grad transfer. He played in 26 games during his two years with the Panthers.
At the time, it was more common for athletes seeking other opportunities to not make knee jerk decisions. Gragg learned patience is key, and conveys to his clients that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Gragg was no stranger to competing against elite talent growing up, starting under his own roof learning from his brother Chris Gragg, who played for the Hogs from 2008-2012 and then spent five seasons in the NFL.
“I just tell them not to hop in [the transfer portal] too fast,” Gragg said of his collegiate clients. “I just try to reiterate to the guys to accept their one or two years of development and it will be worth it after a while.”
“If you are quick to jump ship and you jump too many ships, then coaches look at who has been to two or three schools differently than a guy who stuck it out and tried to make a way for himself.”
Though he serves as a guide, he says he stays away from swaying athletes to any certain program.
“We give our clients recommendations, but we do not try and push them one way or another,” he said. “We never want anyone to feel like they went somewhere because we said such and such. The kids make the decisions and choose what is best for them.”
Adapt or Get Left Behind
The transfer portal window is wide open this time of year, which means Gragg spends a lot of time on the road going to meet with collegiate general managers and other team representatives for his clients. He also travels throughout the year to meet with high school coaches and potential clients. If a high school athlete plays in a state where NIL is allowed (like Missouri), then they are allowed to sign with an agent.
“A typical day is us having three or four meetings as a staff, especially now when guys are restructuring their deals,” Gragg said. “We also see which guys fit what places as far as the portal, plus make sure our NFL guys are taken care of.”
“However, I would say there is nothing typical about it. You never know what you are going to do – one day I am at a high school trying to help a kid going into college who needs guidance, next day I am at a college watching practice. As far as travel, we just go based on the guy we want to target.”
Many programs across the country have adapted to the current landscape by expanding their staffs to include more payroll-oriented positions. One of the most high-profile examples of this is Stanford bringing on legendary Cardinal quarterback and former No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck as a general manager.
These kinds of moves are necessary because of what’s coming around the bend. Beginning in 2025, student athletes will make the majority of their income through revenue sharing, but NIL deals will also be included on top of that – similar to how NFL players have endorsement deals on top of their contractual income. For that reason, programs across the country have begun hiring GMs to oversee their rosters’ financial situations.
Gragg said the job of college GMs is evolving into something similar to that of their NFL counterparts – managing the payroll structure to make sure no one is getting over or underpaid. Prior to the NIL era, a college GM’s job was more about focusing on recruiting logistics. Now, however, it includes negotiating player deals with agents like Gragg. If the team does not have a GM, agents talk with one of the coaches on staff.
“It is pretty much the same as far as negotiations,” Gragg said. “As far as the market value, we have to know that for all positions. The market price gets set and then you follow it just like the NFL.”
This time of year, as players figure out whether they will stay put or look elsewhere for opportunities, each one-on-one postseason meeting consists of making sure all clients’ needs are met. Additionally, Gragg keeps in “daily” contact with his clients to ensure all of their needs are being met.
How Transfer Portal Discussions Go
“The first thing we ask our guys after the season concludes is whether or not they are happy where they are, and that will determine where the conversation goes,” Gragg said. “If they are staying then we will typically go into renegotiation talks for the next season.
“A lot of these kids pick up and leave for [hypothetically speaking] $50,000 or $100,000 dollars and we just don’t want to encourage that. If they have a connection or relationship where they are then that is more than money can buy and you do not need to re-establish yourself when you are already comfortable.”
Arkansas has a director of recruiting and an on-campus recruiter, but has not had a general manager by title since Butler Benton, who was on staff during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. But Benton’s responsibilities were not payroll-oriented like those of the GMs who are becoming increasingly common on the college football landscape.
Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek and head coach Sam Pittman are reportedly pondering the idea of bringing on a modern-day GM, something that would take the burden off the Head Hog when it comes to managing players’ NIL sums. Who would make the most sense in such a position is an open question. Perhaps it could be a famous alum who can stir the passions of the fanbase as Luck had done as Stanford.
“Is that a Darren McFadden who would come in there?” Rawleigh Williams III said when asked who would make sense as a Hogs GM. “Do you give it to an alum who is the one of the greatest of all time, or the number cruncher guy who is behind the scenes?”
Regardless of how high-profile such a person would be, a general manager certainly could have helped keep more players on board this offseason considering the Hogs have a whopping 28 players in the portal as of Friday evening.
If the Hogs end up landing Crutchfield, it’ll be a former Razorback in Gragg sitting down at the negotiating table to figure out terms for the Pine Bluff wide receiver.
(Michael Main also contributed to this feature.)
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247 Sports’ Brandon Marcello and Inside Arkansas break down why the Hogs need a GM ASAP:
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Not the most flattering things said about Crutchfield by Mizzou media starting at 4:40 below:
More coverage of Arkansas football and the transfer portal from BoAS:
