The offseason has been rocky so far for Arkansas football and head coach Sam Pittman, to say the least.
A whopping 28 players have hit the exit gates, with many key contributors like Jaylon Braxton, Luke Hasz and Brad Spence hitting the transfer portal and landing at rival schools like Ole Miss and Texas. But the Hogs have begun turning the tide and plugging those holes. It started with Oregon transfer offensive tackle “Shaq” McRoy, and continued with four-star commitments from Michigan State defensive end Ken Talley and Texas A&M tight end Jaden Platt.
Some more recent good news for Razorback Nation came with a pair of jumbo-sized transfer portal presents under the Christmas tree.
The first was Georgia Tech’s starting left tackle Corey Robinson II committing to Arkansas. As a redshirt junior in 2024, Robinson posted a PFF pass-blocking grade of 91.2 – the highest mark in the Power Four. He has also allowed zero sacks since 2022 on over 400 pass plays. The 6-foot-5, 305-pounder is On3’s No. 2 tackle in the portal.
Mere minutes later, UCF starting center Caden Kitler also pledged to the Hogs. The redshirt sophomore posted a respectable 67.8 PFF grade in the Big 12 this season, and is ranked as On3’s No. 17 transfer interior lineman. Kitler has two years of eligibility remaining, while Robinson is a grad transfer with one year left. Both players were three-star prospects out of high school.
After the departure of three out of five starting offensive linemen, these additions were much-needed for Pittman and the Razorbacks.
Pittman’s O-Line Savant Reputation Put to the Test
The Hogs were in desperate need of talent, depth and experience in the trenches – and the trio of additions on the offensive line so far address all three of those needs.
In Robinson, Arkansas gets a three-year starter from a Power Four program at one of the most important positions in football. Alongside the returning Fernando Carmona, quarterback Taylen Green will have a pair of grizzled veteran 5th-year seniors anchoring both sides of the offensive line. QB1 is already thrilled about this news:
In Kitler, the Hogs get another respectable starter from the Power Four. He’s not as highly-touted as departing center Addison Nichols was coming into Arkansas, but he can do the job. McRoy didn’t see the field as a freshman this season, but in his defense, he was playing for the No. 1 team in the country.
He’s just a year removed from being a top-100 prospect in the country out of high school, giving Arkansas a big-time infusion of talent. While it’s unlikely he will start out wide at tackle next season, he’s the kind of guy who can be the future anchor of the offensive line after Robinson and Carmona graduate.
Standing at 6-foot-8 and listed at 375 pounds, McRoy is also the heaviest offensive lineman Arkansas has had in at least the last 15 years. An imposing presence, to say the least.
Arkansas’ offensive line has been one of the team’s weaker points in the last two seasons. Alongside the disappointing win-loss record, that’s an indictment on Pittman – someone who’s built a career out of being an offensive line savant.
In 2023, the line was obviously a disaster within an offense that struggled to move the ball. But even this season when the unit as a whole improved substantially, the offensive line remained a problem. Missed assignments that caused Green to take 30 sacks this season, frequent issues with false starts and holding penalties and a merry-go-round of positional changes were all causes of that.
Especially with three starters hitting the portal, folks were starting to hit the panic button on the Head Hog. But these transfer additions indicate Pittman may still have his fastball when it comes to his bread and butter of recruiting and developing talented offensive linemen.
Pittman Hits Back at Arkansas-to-Ole Miss Pipeline
These big boys coming in are also a breath of fresh air for Pittman after a rough last few weeks. First it was Arkansas commit Connor Howes from Florida, a four-star offensive lineman flipped to Ole Miss on Signing Day and cited the Head Hog’s hot seat turmoil as part of his reasoning.
“I’m not saying they were offering me anything more than Arkansas was, but at the end of the day, those coaches will be there at Ole Miss,” he told 247 Sports’ David Johnson. “I don’t have to worry about them getting fired or anything. They’ve been consistent the last five years.”
While Howes wasn’t saying he was on the receiving end of negative recruiting by opposing coaches, that’s certainly the verbiage that such tactics would entail.
Then, in the transfer portal, three ex-Hogs followed former Razorback Chris Paul Jr. into Oxford. Admittedly, Kutas did Pittman no favors by apparently promising to stay in Fayetteville, only to change his mind and hit the “eject” button instead. Hasz’s loss also hurts the Hogs, as a myriad of losses at the receiver position put the lead-dog tight end in position for a huge workload next season.
But the most hurtful departure to the Rebels may actually be Jaylen Braxton, not because of what Arkansas is losing on the field (he only appeared in two games this season), but the troubling comments he made in the aftermath of his move.
The sophomore was out for nearly the entire season nursing an injury that was listed as a bone bruise – but Braxton alleges the Arkansas medical staff flubbed up his treatment.
“The injury was actually a fractured knee cap,” he told Inside the Rebels’ David Johnson. “The team doctors there at Arkansas had misdiagnosed me. They told me I had tendonitis and a bone bruise. I actually had to go off-campus to my own doctors and figure that out myself.”
“I’ll be ready for spring ball,” he added. “I didn’t have to get surgery or anything.”
While it’s easy to brush aside Braxton’s case and say there’s no way the medical staff missed a broken bone – as many Arkansas fans did when they heard the news – it’s entirely possible that the medical staff got it wrong. I’m by no means a doctor, but a little bit of Google searching reveals that hairline fractures are often tricky to spot and easy to overlook in an x-ray.
Players milking injuries for extra eligibility is definitely a thing in college football – something Pittman alluded to with a description matching the situations of Kutas and Braxton.
“I think it’s more agents getting in these kids’ ears and going, ‘Okay, if you don’t play, I can get you X amount of dollars, and if you do [play] and you only have one year left, I can get you a lower amount of money.’”
But again, it’s hard to doubt Braxton’s story given how delicate of a field sports medicine is. What makes matters worse is that, like in any industry, players talk to each other. If they have a good experience at a program, they’ll tell their friends about it – and visa versa. If Braxton feels like the team doctors did wrong by him, he’s going to tell his current (and new) teammates about it.
Braxton is just a layperson, of course, and not a medical professional. Still, he has a large platform and just throwing out the word “misdiagnose” in the context he did could hurt the program’s reputation overall. Especially among those who aren’t knowledgeable enough to understand all the nuances of his situation and the understandable hiccups that can happen during the diagnosis and treatment processes.
With so many former Razorbacks heading down to Oxford to rep that gaudy powder blue, Arkansas fans aren’t wrong to feel frustrated. It’s even gotten to the point where Ole Miss’ Barstool account likened the Hogs to a feeder program for their direct rival:
Getting big-time commitments like Robinson into the fold helps alleviate that perception, showing others that Arkansas can still be a destination for top transfers. And when they are specifically guys with multiple years of eligibility like McRoy, then that helps counter the hot-seat concerns that Howes expressed.
Other Transfer Portal Targets Who Could Become Hogs Soon
Texas State running back Ismail Mahdi visited Arkansas this past weekend and is set to make his decision soon – with the Hogs at the forefront. Mahdi led the nation in all-purpose yards in 2023, and followed it up with 991 rushing yards this season. The two-time 1st-Team All-Sun Belt tailback would be a welcome addition for an Arkansas running back room left depleted after its top three contributors all hit the exits.
UAB safety Adrian Maddox visited Arkansas on Tuesday and had great things to say about the program. The junior had 44 tackles, one interception and two forced fumbles in 2024, along with a solid 77.6 PFF grade. Maddox’s teammate, wide receiver Kam Shanks, committed to the Hogs on Tuesday.
Arkansas got a massive visit (literally) on Tuesday from Georgia defensive tackle Jamaal Jarrett, who’s played a limited role in two seasons with the Bulldogs but was a top-100 prospect out of high school. At 6-foot-5, 350 pounds, he would be an imposing addition to the Hogs in the trenches. His prior relationship with defensive line coach Deke Adams and his successful visit put Arkansas in a good spot with Jarrett.
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The Inside Arkansas crew breaks down the additions of Robinson and Kitler:
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