SEC starters are difficult to find, thus when one enters the portal, fans are expected to rush to social media faster than a new Razorback’s Søllerød Gold Diggers to implore their respective athletic directors to put together an NIL package to land them.
That’s college football in 2024 for you. When a player like former Ole Miss star Quinshon Judkins with more than 3,000 all-purpose yards over the past two seasons enters the transfer portal, all bets are off.
If the running back had chosen Arkansas, he would undoubtedly have become the cream of the crop of a transfer class that currently ranks third in the SEC and ninth nationally according to 247Sports.
In the run up to Judkins’ destination decision, an Arkansas football fan named Antony Cameron participated in the circus that follows when a five-star transfer declares for the portal. He felt like Pittman and Petrino should go all in to try land Judkins, even if that was always a pipe dream.
Sure enough, Quinshon Judkins is heading to an Ohio State program that undoubtedly have higher national prominence, NIL money and opportunities to raise his draft stock.
What was less expected was the pro-Judkins Tweet drawing the ire of multiple Razorback players — particularly Lorando “Snaxx” Johnson, who has quickly shot up the Hog notoriety boards for his infamous posting on “X”. Other players got involved as well, with Snaxx specifically telling Cameron to “Aye, Chill” during his latest episode of chippy banter with followers of the program.
And there’s a whole lot more where they came from, that’s for sure:
When it comes to cooling those red-hot jets on social media, Johnson is far from taking his own advice about chilling. That’s a great thing, actually, considering how much verbal abuse these high major college players have to endure – especially when their teams are struggling.
There’s always going to be a group of fans who loathe them speaking out, but it makes a lot more sense for a personality like Johnson to have fun bantering with fans in the dead of the offseason than it would in the middle of the SEC grind. It’s all in good fun, and nobody is jeopardizing their performance in a game or even practice because of it.
The Arkansas RB Room
Going all out to land Quinshon Judkins made even less sense with Arkansas already having a solid running back room despite the departures of AJ Green and Raheim “Rocket” Sanders. Ja’Quinden Jackson, a transfer from Utah, is coming off a 797-yard season of his own and figures to take over as the co-lead running back alongside Rashod Dubinion, who has previously expressed his displeasure with the transfer portal, and Isaiah Augustave. Dubinion was quick to join in on the confusion over the Judkins hype, playing a bit coy:
Arkansas football fans may feel rather jaded having been led down this path before. They were promised one of the deepest and most efficient running back rooms in the country last year after back-to-back seasons finishing in the top 10 in rushing. What they got instead was a star player stuck on the sideline due to injury and a running game that became inept due to an offensive line that gave up sacks and tackles for loss at will.
Arkansas’ running back room is again in a similar position – a proven running back with a Power Five pedigree who figures to get a decent share of the carries in Jackson and then a bunch of unknowns. Dubinion (along with the departed Green) did as good of a job as they could with Sanders in and out of the lineup all season. It remains to be seen how much of the running back issues were on the much-maligned offensive line, but it would be a mistake to blame all of the running game’s issues on that unit.
Augustave showed potential in the final two games of the season with 181 yards against Missouri and Florida International, but did not get any run behind the more experienced backs when the season truly mattered. The addition of Braylen Russell is intriguing, but given Pittman’s hesitance to play Augustave in critical games, the playing time a true freshman could get may be limited.
Efforts in the Transfer Portal
The fans were also promised a top-15 transfer recruiting class whose greatest contribution was winning the program’s first-ever game in Gainesville before not-so-graciously bowing out of bowl contention with blowout losses to Auburn and Mizzou.
Many of them turned out to be busts that did little more than slide down the depth chart faster than the Razorbacks slid to the bottom of the SEC. Var’keyes Gumms was a four-star transfer and, despite the tight end room being hit with injuries to both Luke Hasz and Ty Washington, he was a non-factor, finishing the season with all of 26 receiving yards. Jaheim Singletary, a former five-star recruit, was limited to just 17 tackles and four starts before falling out of the rotation.
Yes, Josh Braun earned All-SEC recognition and Andrew Armstrong put together a solid season as the team’s leading receiver. But their play was often overshadowed by those who failed to live up to expectations, providing more opportunity for a fan base to feel a bit deceived as the season fell apart.
However, as things have simmered down a bit, the bravado and the panache from the players for a successful 2024 campaign seem to be back, with players firing back at fans for their rather interesting and purely wishful takes. Isn’t that what sports Twitter was invented for anyway? Especially in the offseason. It’s not the full-fledged meal of entertainment that an actual football season promises us, but it’s good for the nibbling anyhow.
Snaxx rests his case.
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