Fans of Marcus Woodson’s Alma Mater Won’t Like Seeing What He Just Did for Arkansas

Noreel White, Marcus Woodson, Arkansas football, Arkansas recruiting
photo credit: Twitter/@NoreelWhite_

The list of Arkansas football commitments in the 2024 class has tripled in size over the last few days, as Noreel White is the latest to announce his pledge.

Just two days after reeling in defensive tackle Dion Stutts from Memphis, the Razorbacks dipped into another bordering state to land a four-star athlete; White goes to St. Martin High School in Ocean Springs, Miss.

He chose Arkansas over a final five that also included SEC West rivals LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, as well as Florida State. Auburn had also offered.

The two recent commits join Leeds, Ala., four-star defensive end Kavion Henderson, who announced his commitment back on Nov. 6, as the three members of the 2024 class for Arkansas football so far.

Listed as an athlete on 247Sports and ESPN, White plays on both sides of the ball at St. Martin. As a junior, he racked up 1,109 all-purpose yards — including 650 receiving and 255 rushing — and 13 touchdowns, plus made 55 tackles and three interceptions on defense. Both Rivals and On3 classify him as a wide receiver, but he is believed to be set to play defense at Arkansas.

White is a four-star prospect on all four services, with ESPN ranking him No. 298 overall. With a .9002 rating, he is No. 342 overall and the 10th-best recruit in Mississippi, according to the 247Sports Composite.

Now with three commitments in the 2024 class, the Razorbacks are much more in line with the rest of the SEC. Eight of the 14 programs have either three or four commitments, with LSU (11) and Georgia (9) leading the way and Kentucky (2) and Mississippi State (2) bringing up the rear.

It’s still too early to put too much stock into recruiting rankings at this stage of the process, but Arkansas is now No. 22 on Rivals and No. 24 in the 247Sports Composite.

The Recruitment of Noreel White

Noreel White has been on the recruiting scene for quite some time, as he picked up his first offer — from Florida State — in January 2021, when he was a freshman.

He proceeded to pick up offers from the two in-state SEC programs, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, but committed to the Seminoles just three months after getting the offer.

However, White reopened his recruitment 10 months after committing so he could explore all of his options, while still considering Florida State.

Back in January, it appeared to be a three-team race between LSU, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, though, because his primary recruiter for the Seminoles — Marcus Woodson — had left to become the co-defensive coordinator at Arkansas.

In fact, in a story published on Jan. 12, White told Rivals that those three SEC programs were the schools he was most interested in and that he planned to announce his decision on Feb. 7.

The very next day, those plans apparently changed because Woodson extended an offer at his new school. Having already reeled him in once before, he set out to do it again with the Razorbacks.

Sure enough, two days after his original commitment date, White released his updated top five that included Arkansas.

He was in Fayetteville this weekend and pulled the trigger on a commitment via Twitter on Monday.

Arkansas Recruiting Efforts in Mississippi

Assuming he sticks, Noreel White would give the Razorbacks a signee from Mississippi in back-to-back classes. They signed linebacker Alex Sanford in the 2023 class.

They had landed only one high school recruit from the state in the previous six classes — quarterback KJ Jefferson in 2019 — and just two in the previous 10, with the other being tight end Grayson Gunter in 2016.

While he didn’t get to Fayetteville in time to influence Sanford’s decision, it’s impossible to ignore the impact Marcus Woodson had on White. After all, he got the four-star recruit to commit to him twice at two different schools.

The Razorbacks’ new co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach is from Moss Point, Miss., and played safety at Ole Miss before breaking into the coaching ranks at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. — so he’ll play a key role

Since his arrival, Arkansas has also hosted and/or offered five-star defensive end Kamarion Franklin from Lake Cormorant, four-star defensive tackle Terrance Hibbler from Lexington, four-star defensive back PJ Woodland from Hattiesburg, four-star athlete Julius Pope from Batesville, four-star linebacker Jamonta Waller from Picayune and several others from the Magnolia State.

Class of 2024 Arkansas Football Commitments

  • DE Kavion Henderson — Leeds (Ala.) — Nov. 6, 2022
  • DL Dion Stutts — Memphis (Tenn.) University School — March 11, 2023
  • ATH Noreel White — Ocean Springs (Miss.) St. Martin — March 13, 2023

***

Check out some highlights of Noreel White, the newest Arkansas football commitment:

***

More coverage of Arkansas football and Arkansas recruiting from BoAS…

Facebook Comments