On the same weekend Arkansas football legend Joe Adams was inducted into the UA Hall of Honor and watched the Hogs essentially win a game with his signature play, the younger brother of a former teammate of his turned in a punt return that would have made him proud.
While most attention was on Bryce Stephens’ go-ahead 82-yard punt return touchdown in the Razorbacks’ 38-27 win over Missouri State on Saturday, five-star target Ryan Wingo pulled off an impressive 65-yard return for a score of his own Friday night.
The St. Louis native fielded a punt on one hop, immediately broke one tackle and then evaded a few more in jaw-dropping fashion as he worked his way across the field and down the opposite sideline. It was just one of several plays the standout wide receiver made in St. Louis University High’s 43-15 win over Vashon, as he also caught four passes for 124 yards and two more scores.
With plays and performances like that, it’s easy to see why Wingo — the younger brother of former Arkansas running back Ronnie Wingo Jr. — is so highly regarded in the 2024 class. Despite being just a junior, he already has more than 30 offers from the likes of Arkansas, Florida, LSU, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and many others.
Wingo is a top-25 recruit on all four major recruiting services, with Rivals already assigning him a five-star rating as the seventh-best player in the country regardless of position and tabbing him as the No. 2 wide receiver in the class.
Listed at 6-foot-2, 198 pounds, Wingo has been clocked at 10.55 seconds in the 100-meter dash — making him faster than current Arkansas speedsters Isaiah Sategna and Bryce Stephens. He’s already caught 18 passes for 426 yards through four games this year and has scored nine total touchdowns. That’s coming off a sophomore campaign in which he racked up 32 receptions for 638 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Both of Wingo’s older brothers were four-star recruits and played in the SEC. Ronnie Jr. was No. 101 overall on Rivals and signed with the Razorbacks as a running back in 2009, while Raymond was No. 201 overall on 247Sports and signed with Missouri as a defensive back in the 2014 class.
That connection to Arkansas has led to Ryan Wingo visiting Fayetteville multiple times. He was in town for the Texas game last season and then again for a prospect camp in March, on a date that also allowed him to attend a baseball game.
According to WholeHogSports, Wingo will make a third visit to Arkansas for the Alabama game on Oct. 1. If the Razorbacks can beat Texas A&M on Saturday, it will likely be a top-10 showdown similar to the game 12 years earlier in which his older brother electrified Reynolds Razorback Stadium with a 43-yard touchdown on a wheel route that gave Arkansas a 7-0 lead less than a minute into the game.
The Razorbacks will be hoping for a different result than that showdown, which ended in a heartbreaking 24-20 loss, but definitely wouldn’t mind seeing another Wingo in an Arkansas football uniform.
The Arkansas-Texas A&M Battle in Tulsa
Speaking of that matchup with the Aggies this week, the Southwest Classic isn’t only taking place inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The Razorbacks are also battling Texas A&M on the recruiting trail, as the Aggies are making a push to flip 2023 four-star commit Micah Tease out of Tulsa.
Tease — who committed to Arkansas on July 4 — took an official visit to College Station last weekend.
He does not mention Arkansas in his Twitter bio and his avatar is blacked out, but his Instagram account still references the Razorbacks and his commitment announcement is still pinned.
Tease posted the above photos on his Instagram and fellow 2023 Arkansas commit Jaylon Braxton replied with a “WPS.” In response to an Arkansas account, Braxton — who himself tweeted about an offer from Tennessee this week — said Tease was “just enjoying his recruitment process” and implied he was still solid to the Razorbacks.
However, it probably wouldn’t hurt for the Razorbacks to go ahead and take care of business against the Aggies to shore up his commitment.
Another In-State 5-Star Hooper
The state of Arkansas hasn’t produced very many top-100 football recruits over the last couple of decades, but basketball has been a different story.
There are routinely multiple players from the Natural State — including those who leave to play at prep schools, such as Moses Moody — in men’s basketball and the 2024 class could produce the next five-star recruit.
Not long after 2023 Arkansas commit Layden Blocker, a Little Rock native now playing at Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, was bumped up to five-star status in the 247Sports Composite, Little Rock Central’s Annor Boateng jumped up 41 spots to No. 13 in Rivals’ updated 2024 class rankings and is also received that coveted fifth star.
If that rating holds, he would become just the sixth five-star prospect to come through the state during the Rivals era. Bobby Portis (2013) and Nick Smith Jr. (2022) each signed with the Razorbacks, while the other three — Archie Goodwin (2012, Kentucky), Malik Monk (2016, Kentucky) and Kel’el Ware (2022, Oregon) — left the state.
For a full scouting report on Boateng, click here.
Also included in the updated Rivals150 for 2024 is Dallas Thomas, a four-star prospect out of Little Rock Parkview. He fell 12 spots to No. 67.
Trio of Arkansas Baseball Commits Win Gold
Three members of Arkansas’ top-ranked 2023 baseball recruiting class made USA Baseball’s 2022 18U National Team and helped Team USA capture the gold medal at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Florida this weekend.
In fact, the two leading hitters for Team USA are committed to the Razorbacks, as Aidan Miller captured the batting title for the event and Kendall George also put up solid numbers when given the opportunity.
Miller — the No. 4 recruit in the class, according to Perfect Game — capped his incredible summer by going 11 for 23 with three triples, two home runs, eight RBIs and 12 runs while starting all nine games. He also drew seven walks and was hit by a pitch once, giving him eight free passes to only five strikeouts. That gave him an impressive .478/.594/1.000 slash line.
George isn’t quite as heralded, checking in at No. 95 in Perfect Game’s recruiting rankings, but he went 4 for 11 and led the team with three doubles and five stolen bases (on five attempts) despite starting only five of the games and appearing in three others. He struck out just once and walked six times, giving him a .364/.556/.636 slash line.
The third Arkansas commitment on the team was a pitcher, left-hander Adam Hachman. He appeared in three games, picking up one win and earning a save while allowing two earned runs on five hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings. While his 4.91 ERA isn’t great, he did have nine strikeouts. That equates to a whopping 22.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
Other Arkansas Recruiting Nuggets
- After a quiet game the previous week, wide receiver Davion Dozier — a 2023 commit from Alabama — was back to making an impact last Friday. He caught three passes for 86 yards and two touchdowns in Moody’s 32-6 win over Lincoln, which improved his team to 5-0 on the season. In those games, Dozier has caught 21 passes for 618 yards and nine touchdowns.
- Although he did throw a pair of interceptions, 2024 quarterback target Walker White otherwise had a very solid performance in Little Rock Christian’s 42-14 win over Russellville. He completed 17 of 29 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns, plus added two rushing touchdowns.
- Kiandrea Barker, the talented 2025 running back from Beebe, announced he was offered by Ole Miss last Friday. The in-state prospect — who checks in at No. 69 in 247Sports’ initial ranking of the 2025 class — already had plenty of other Power Five school offers, including from Florida State, Mississippi State, Missouri, Penn State, Pitt and Purdue.
- Defensive end Kavion Henderson, a top-100 recruit in the 2024 class from Alabama, has announced his commitment date. He will choose between Arkansas, Auburn, Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama at 3 p.m. CT on Nov. 6.
- Arkansas made the top 10 for 2024 five-star dual-threat quarterback DJ Lagway. The Willis, Texas, native also included Alabama, Baylor, Clemson, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and USC on his list. It’s worth noting that he is the son of a former Baylor football player and is a talented athlete on the diamond who’s been offered by the Arkansas baseball team, as well.
- On the basketball front, big men and cousins Baye Fall and Assane Diop — five- and four-star recruits, respectively — were expected to take their official visits this past weekend for the Missouri State weekend, but have postponed them to the weekend of the Alabama football game.
- Eric Musselman and his staff did welcome a trio of 2024 recruits on unofficial visits over the weekend. Five-star guard David Castillo from Bartlesville, Okla., and in-state four-star forward Dallas Thomas from Little Rock Parkview already had offers from Arkansas, while Jalen Shelley — a top-50 prospect from Texas — left Fayetteville with an offer. It was a dual-purpose visit for him, given his older brother is Missouri State’s talented quarterback Jason Shelley.
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