There won’t be any drama surrounding Arkansas’ recruitment of Jordan Anthony out of the transfer portal.
Even before taking his official visit to Fayetteville, the speedy wide receiver out of Texas A&M announced Tuesday that he would continue his career with the Razorbacks.
It will be the third stop of Anthony’s collegiate career, as he originally signed with Kentucky out of high school and, after just one year, transferred to Texas A&M. He also spent one season with the Aggies.
Arkansas was the only offer Anthony reported this time around, but he was offered by Mississippi State, Tennessee and a handful of other Power Five programs last offseason.
He is the Razorbacks’ ninth addition out of the transfer portal this cycle, the full list of which can be found below. Although Anthony is the first wide receiver of the bunch, Arkansas has relied on the portal at that position for the last couple of years.
This past season, it brought in Isaac TeSlaa, Andrew Armstrong and Tyrone Broden. The year before that, the Razorbacks landed Jadon Haselwood and Matt Landers. All five were starters and had varying levels of success.
Jordan Anthony’s Previous Stops
A four-star recruit in the Class of 2022, Jordan Anthony was a legitimate two-sport prospect coming out of Tylertown High School in Mississippi.
Not only did he garner offers from multiple Power Five programs, including Florida State, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Syracuse, Tennessee and others, but the speedster was also a standout in track with a personal best of 10.21 seconds in the 100-meter dash.
Anthony ultimately signed with Kentucky for both sports and actually made an immediate impact in the latter with the Wildcats. Despite playing just two snaps and redshirting with the football team, he earned All-America honors for his achievements on the track.
With a time of 6.55 seconds, Anthony finished second in the 60-meter dash at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships. He also finished second in that event at the SEC Indoor Championships.
In May, Anthony opted to hit the transfer portal. He received several offers and chose to remain in the SEC by transferring to Texas A&M.
Appearing in four total games, Anthony played 20 total snaps — half of which came in the opener against New Mexico. A couple of weeks later, he caught three passes (and dropped one, per PFF) for 14 yards against Louisiana-Monroe.
That proved to be his only official statistics, as he played only one snap against Mississippi State and one snap against Abilene Christian the rest of the season. It was a small sample size, but Anthony earned a 57.4 grade from Pro Football Focus.
What it Means for Arkansas Football
Despite his lack of production in two years of college football, Jordan Anthony is a former four-star recruit with undeniably elite speed. If that wasn’t enough for Arkansas football fans to buy in on his addition, Bobby Petrino clearly saw something in him to recruit him to two different schools.
He’ll join a wide receiver room that is quickly stockpiling speed.
The Razorbacks already had two track sprinters on the roster in Isaiah Sategna and Dazmin James, both of whom committed for both sports in their respective classes. Sategna is the son of former Arkansas assistant track coach Mario Sategna, while James received multiple Power Five track offers before getting the late offer to play football at Arkansas.
It wasn’t always evident on the field last season, but strength and conditioning coach Ben Sowders told reporters before the season that transfers Andrew Armstrong and Tyrone Broden were two of five players on the roster who were clocked at 22 mph in offseason workouts, with Isaac TeSlaa knocking on the door of that threshold.
Both of the Razorbacks’ 2024 wide receiver signees are speed guys, as well. Ashton Bethel-Roman is the son of a former NFL player (father) and LSU track star (mother) and starred on his high school’s track team, while Krosse Johnson ran a personal-best 10.54-second 100-meter dash as a junior and has reportedly been clocked at 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash.
Of course, aside from those two high school signees and Anthony out of the transfer portal, most of those speedsters were at Arkansas’ disposal last season and it didn’t exactly translate to results on the field.
The hope for head coach Sam Pittman is that Petrino will scheme them up better than former offensive coordinator Dan Enos and find ways to utilize their speed.
According to Reel Analytics, only five players were clocked at 21 mph or faster multiple times this season. Florida State running back Trey Benson led the way by doing it three times, while Colorado running back Dylan Edwards, Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., Oregon wide receiver Troy Franklin and Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy each did it twice.
If everything goes as Pittman and Petrino hope, Arkansas very well could have a player on that list in 2024.
After all, Sategna hit that mark once in 2023, topping out at 21.9 mph on his 88-yard punt return against BYU. Armstrong and Broden – assuming he returns – have hit that mark in practice and Anthony’s high school time of 10.21 seconds in the 100-meter dash translates to about 21.9 mph.
Obviously there’s a big difference between doing it in practice or on a track without pads on, but the potential is there for the Razorbacks to field some burners at wide receiver.
Arkansas Football Players in Track
Having a wide receiver room with three players — Jordan Anthony, Isaiah Sategna and Dazmin James — who could run track for the Razorbacks brings to mind a different position unit at Arkansas a couple of decades ago.
The Razorbacks’ secondary in 2002 and 2003 featured future first-round pick Ahmad “Batman” Carroll, Lawrence Richardson and future Food Network star Eddie Jackson, all of whom also ran track while in college. They helped Arkansas to back-to-back nine-win seasons.
More recently, Cobi Hamilton ran track in addition to being a record-breaking wide receiver for the Razorbacks. Considering he coached Hamilton and also recruited wide receiver Eric Hawkins, who participated in both sports at Arkansas, Bobby Petrino seems to be okay with two-sport athletes.
There’s also precedent for Sam Pittman bringing on two-sport athletes, as he was very high on running back Josh Oglesby before he got buried on the depth chart and opted to transfer, plus he signed both Isaiah Sategna and Dazmin James under the premise that they’d do both.
There are numerous examples of Arkansas football players participating in track and field through the years, but the most famous example was Clyde “Smackover” Scott. In addition to being an All-American running back for the Razorbacks and eventual first-round NFL Draft pick, Scott won a silver medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the 1948 Summer Olympics.
Razorbacks’ Transfer Portal Commits
Here’s a look at the players Arkansas football has landed out of the transfer portal so far this cycle…
- WR Jordan Anthony — Texas A&M
- OL Keyshawn Blackstock — Michigan State
- OL Fernando Carmona — San Jose State
- QB Taylen Green — Boise State
- OL Addison Nichols — Tennessee
- TE Andreas Paaske — Eastern Michigan
- K Matthew Shipley — Hawaii
- DB Doneiko Slaughter — Tennessee
- LB Xavian Sorey Jr. — Georgia
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Starting at 4:20 below, Krosse Johnson shares his thoughts on how he would match up with Tyreek Hill in the 40-yard sprint:
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More coverage of Arkansas football and the transfer portal from BoAS…
