Tag: devon manuel

Former Arkansas offensive lineman transferring to Florida

Former Arkansas offensive lineman Devon Manuel committed to the Florida Gators on Friday following an official visit to UF.

The Florida Gators have landed an offensive lineman from the transfer portal with SEC experience.

Former Arkansas Razorbacks offensive tackle [autotag]Devon Manuel[/autotag] announced his commitment to the University of Florida on Friday, the final day of his official visit with the Gators.

In an exclusive interview with Swamp247’s Blake Alderman, Manuel said that Florida employing multiple offensive line coaches helped him land on the Gators.

“They have a lot of people who work in the o-line room,” Manuel said. “It just felt like I have a lot of resources there that will be valuable. I feel like my development will be better and faster with all the things accessible to me.”

Arkansas signed Manuel as a three-star prospect out of high school. He weighed nearly 400 pounds but has since worked his weight down to the low 300s. Standing at 6-feet-9-inches tall, he has the ideal SEC lineman’s body.

Manuel redshirted after failing to appear in any games during the 2021 season. He only saw action in one game during his redshirt freshman season in 2022. Finally, in 2023, Maneul saw regular playing time on Arkansas’ offensive line, playing more than 415 snaps.

Pro Football Focus gave him an offensive grade of 70.1 for the season. He performed better as a run blocker (69.9) than a pass blocker (64.5).

Manuel joins an offensive line room in Gainesville that struggled at times in 2023. Both starting tackles ā€” Austin Barber and Damieon George ā€” are returning, and there is Kamryn Waites to consider. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Manuel move to the interior at Florida.

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Gators expecting visits from transfer portal athletes over the weekend

The Florida Gators are hosting several transfer portal players over the weekend before the spring semester begins.

The Florida football program is expecting a few marquee visits before class sessions begin on Monday, with several players in the transfer portal planning to see the UF campus.

Swamp247 staff writer Blake Aldermann reports that six players in the portal will be in Gainesville with different coaches seeing over certain positions.

Head coach Billy Napier has been filling voids on his coaching staff and put them right to work by recruiting transfer students. New assistant coach Will Harris has taken a focus on the Gators secondary, and one of his assignments will be talking up former UCLA Bruins cornerback John Humphrey.

The senior is already committed to the USC Trojans, but there is the possibility the Gators could pull off a flip. Humphrey has made 25 appearances for the Bruins, collecting two interceptions and six pass deflections.

Former Tulane Green Wave safety DJ Douglas is also scheduled to the Swamp over the weekend. Douglas is a two-time transfer after originally enrolling with the Alabama Crimson Tide back in 2019. The senior racked up 80 tackles in 31 appearances for the Green Wave and hauled in four interceptions.

The Florida Gators will look to add a second player to the trenches, and they’ll have the opportunity to do so when former Arkansas Razorback offensive lineman Devon Manuel comes to town to see what UF is all about. Manuel is uncommitted right now, but has another visit slated with the Missouri Tigers following his visit to Gainesville.

Even if the Gators do manage to land all the expected visiting prospects, there’s still a lot of work to do during the program’s rebuild into 2024.

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Former Arkansas OL to make transfer portal visit with Florida

This massive offensive lineman will be visiting Gainesville for the start of the transfer portal contact period.

The college football transfer portal entry list officially came to a close at midnight on Tuesday but there is still a long line of student-athletes who already submitted their names. And thus begins the official contact period ā€” the window when players can make their official visits again.

Among those seeking greener pastures through the sport’s de facto free agency system is former Arkansas Razorbacks offensive lineman [autotag]Devon Manuel[/autotag], who entered the portal back on Dec. 4. The massive 6-foot-9-inch, 310-pound trench warrior originally out of Sunset, Louisiana, is reportedly visiting Florida’s football program from Jan. 3-5, according to a source familiar with 247Sports.

Manuel has already visited the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Kentucky Wildcats, plus a trip to see the Missouri Tigers lined up right after the Gators.

The redshirt sophomore played in just one game prior to 2023 (in a win against the Auburn Tigers) and last fall saw his efforts hampered by an injury in training camp. Nonetheless, he started the final three of the nine games he appeared in for the Hogs, earning an overall grade of 68.4 on 417 total offensive snaps from Pro Football Focus.

PFF also assigned him a pass grade of 89.4, a pass block grade of 63.5 and a run block grade of 65.6. On3’s transfer portal tracker gives the Orange and Blue a 91.5% chance of landing him.

Florida has already signed former San Diego State Aztecs offensive tackle Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson but could still use more help up front from the portal. A healthy start to the season with the Gators might be what Manuel needs to finally break out.

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Manuel is first offensive player to hit transfer portal

Devon Manuel became the first offensive player to enter the transfer portal on Monday afternoon.

On Monday afternoon, Devon Manuel became the first player from the Arkansas offense to announce he was entering the transfer portal.

Manuel, a former 3-star recruit from Sunset, La., played sparingly in 2023 as he battled injuries but still managed to find his way on the field for nine games.

He also struggled with weight gain when he arrived on campus, and had to slim down in order to earn reps.

His offers out of high school included Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas and Michigan State.

With Arkansas replacing his position coach in Cody Kennedy with Eric Mateos and having already added a lineman in former Michigan State OT Keyshawn Blackstock, it only made sense for Manuel to explore other options.

Arkansas could be short as many as three starters Saturday against Western Carolina

The Razorbacks should be fine considering the opponent, but injuries are real this early.

Brady Latham will probably play. Devon Manuel may not. Antonio Grier almost certainly won’t.

Arkansas isn’t in tip-top shape for Saturday’s season opener against Western Carolina. But at the same time, none of the lingering injuries the Razorbacks have suffered this fall are expected to keep anyone out for too long and by the meat of the season, those three players, at least, should be good to go.

Latham is a four-year starter at left guard and one of the rocks of the offensive line with center Beaux Limmer. Latham was listed as the starter on the team’s official depth chart released Monday, but has missed a bulk of the last week-plus of practice.

Manuel, the projected starting left tackle, is in the same boat. He may be more questionable as coach Sam Pittman listed him alongside Andrew Chamblee at the position, separated with an “OR.”

Even if it is just Western Carolina, an offensive line missing the entire left side of its line isn’t great. Still, it’s better to keep starters out against an FCS team than risk further injury in a game that’s winnable without them.

Grier is not expected to play at all in the opener. A linebacker transfer from South Florida, he had basically locked up a starting spot with Chris Paul in Arkansas’ two-linebacker base. But Jordan Crook, a sophomore, was an easy choice for third-in-line and wasn’t listed next to anyone as a starter for Saturday.

Regardless, Arkansas will be a heavy favorite against the Catamounts when the teams kick off at noon from Little Rock.

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Arkansas Preseason Depth Chart – Offensive Line

As the Hogs begin game prep for the opener against Western Carolina, here’s where the offensive line depth chart stands.

Throughout fall camp, Sam Pittman didn’t shy away from talking about Arkansas’ offensive line struggles.

Following the departures of Ricky Stromberg and Dalton Wagner to the NFL, the Hogs had to do some shuffling on up front. Arkansas’ projected two-deep, includes three seniors, one junior and three sophomores. Of the players in the two-deep, only five have experience playing against SEC competition.

The majority of that experience lies on the interior of the offensive line, where senior guard [autotag]Brady Latham[/autotag], senior center [autotag]Beaux Limmer[/autotag] and junior transfer guard [autotag]Josh Braun[/autotag] are projected to lead. At the tackle spot is where offensive line coach [autotag]Cody Kennedy[/autotag] could have issues.

Arkansas will be relying on sophomores [autotag]Patrick Kutas[/autotag] and [autotag]Devon Manuel[/autotag], who have yet to get meaningful snaps against SEC opponents. That’s where a lot of the offensive line’s highly-publicized pass protection struggles stemmed from during fall camp.

Now, things aren’t always as bad as they seem and [autotag]Cody Kennedy[/autotag]’s got a lot of talent for his third season in Fayetteville. But the pressure is on. Arkansas has KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders to lead a high-octane offensive attack, but that won’t mean anything if they don’t have help up front.

Let’s take a deeper look at the offensive line’s depth chart ahead of week one.

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Razorbacks’ first scrimmage of fall camp shows depth will be tested once again

Following the first scrimmage of fall camp, injuries provide a reminder of how important depth will be to Arkansas’ success this season.

Life in the SEC is a grind but the most successful teams are the ones that can handle the grueling demands of playing in college football’s best conference.

This is usually brought up when talking about the quality of teams in the conference and difficult schedules that come from that – a problem Arkansas fans are all too familiar with. However, the other issue that comes with playing in the SEC is depth. As mentioned before, the best teams in the SEC are almost always the ones that have the depth to handle injuries at key positions.

Last year, Arkansas saw firsthand how injuries can pile up and railroad an entire season. When the injury bug reared its’ ugly head in the secondary and to starting quarterback [autotag]KJ Jefferson[/autotag], the Razorbacks were pretty much done for.

[autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] knows that in order to compete in the SEC you have to have starting-level talent in the two-deep, and sometimes even three-deep, of your depth chart. That was what Pittman set out to accomplish this offseason.

Saturday, the Razorbacks held their first scrimmage of fall camp. The running backs showed out and the defensive line made life difficult on the quarterbacks, but unfortunately the team suffered some injuries at key positions.

“We did have a couple of guys get banged up out there with [autotag]Sam Mbake[/autotag] and [autotag]Nathan Bax[/autotag],” Pittman said to the media following Saturday’s practice. “At this time I don’t know the full extent of either one of their injuries.”

Later that evening, Mbake posted on social media that fans would “have to wait a lil longer” and to “trust the process” which might indicate that he will miss an extended period of time with this injury. Pittman also mentioned that projected starting linebacker [autotag]Chris Paul Jr.[/autotag], left tackle [autotag]Devon Manuel[/autotag] and defensive tackle [autotag]Tank Booker[/autotag] were all three held out of action due to injuries.

Wide receiver, tight end, linebacker and offensive line are areas of concern for Arkansas this season, meaning health could play an important role in the level of success for those position groups. For the first time in a really long time, defensive line has the luxury of depth.

Pittman did say that if it was an actual game, then the trio of Paul, Manuel and Booker likely would’ve played. While that is a positive sign, seeing injuries in key areas should hammer home the importance of depth and having guys be able to step up.

It’s certainly not the last time this season that Pittman’s Hogs will face adversity due to injuries, let’s just hope that they’re better prepared to handle that than a year ago.

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Pittman a little unsettled with Hogs’ pass protection

Pass protection may be an issue, but Sam Pittman knows they still have time in camp to fix what’s wrong.

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman was not content with his team’s pass protection following Saturday’s preseason scrimmage. But he feels it is something that can be rectified by the time the Razorbacks open the season against Western Carolina on Sept. 2.

He gave credit to the defensive line for showing its renewed prowess, but voiced concern for their offensive counterparts, who were without 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore Devon Manuel, the slated starter at left tackle. He was out with an undisclosed injury, but it doesn’t appear to be too serious.

“Our protection has to get better,” Pittman said. “We have to give (quarterback KJ Jefferson) more time. Devon Manuel did not play today. He’s out for maybe another two, three, four days. Something like that. Our pass protection ā€” obviously (Andrew) Chamblee stepped in and did a nice job ā€” but they have some pretty good pass rushers over there. We have to get better there.”

It was the Razorbacks’ first scrimmage of fall camp, which was closed to the public and media.

Although Jefferson looked sharp with his passes, he wasn’t given a lot of time to throw the ball, according to Pittman.

“Friday, he threw the ball as well as Iā€™d ever seen him throw,” Pittman said of his senior team captain. “Crazy accuracy. And when he had time to throw (Saturday), he did one heck of a job.”

Jefferson also admitted that the lack of pass protection caused the Arkansas offense to start slowly Saturday. He did end up completing 9 of his 18 attempts, for 131 yards and 2 TDs.

“Going into the next week, thatā€™s going to be a big emphasis for us, is starting fast,” he said. “Being able to get out on the field and move the ball and get some momentum going early. Thatā€™s the main thing.”

The running game proved effective, as the four primary ball-carriers — Rocket Sanders,Ā  AJ Green, Rashod Dubinion and Dominique Johnson — averaged over 50 yards each on the ground.

With an SEC officiating crew on the field to officiate the scrimmage, the Razorbacks also had far more penalties than what Pittman would have liked to have seen. Yet, having those mistakes early, allows the players and staff to identify what went wrong and fix them, moving forward.

“There’s some pass interference and things like that are going to happen at times,” Pittman said. “But the pre-snap penalties, most of them were with the younger guys. But we had some pre-snap penalties with the offensive line and things of that nature. Several secondary penalties with holding.

“We made mistakes as coaches. We had 12 on the field coming out of the huddle a couple times. Some of those things we have to get better at, but that’s why you scrimmage. And we will.”

Arkansas took Sunday off and will return to the practice field Monday.

Biggest question for Arkansas offensive line is being answered during fall camp

After having a very experienced offensive line last season, the Hogs are relying on youth this year – particularly at the tackle positions.

Entering fall camp, one of the biggest concerns for [autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] and his Arkansas Razorbacks this season was at the tackle spot.

The Hogs will rely on [autotag]Devon Manuel[/autotag] and [autotag]Patrick Kutas[/autotag], two young and unproven guys, to protect senior quarterback KJ Jefferson this year. While both players are extremely talented, Pittman voiced concerns about their inexperience at SEC Media Days in July.

“They are not guys proven on a Saturday afternoon yet.” Pittman said at the podium last month. “Are they talented? Yes. And you know, I’ve been O-line coach forever. I got one of the best offensive line coaches out there in Cody Kennedy, but these guys are really good players. I know they can play. They just haven’t yet, because we’ve had the luxury of having older guys on the team.”

Devon Manuel stands 6-9, 210 pound as a redshirt sophomore. Pittman saw theĀ  potential early on in his recruitment and has continued to see it develop over the last two seasons. Now, Manuel is finding a groove and appears to be in line as the starting left tackle – an important position keeping Jefferson’s blind side protected.

“Any time you have success, this tells you, ‘Iā€™m pretty good.’ His hands, his technique, and now his mind is telling him ‘Iā€™m pretty good.’ You have to know why you build confidence,” said Pittman. “Heā€™s building his confidence because his technique and his hands have become really good. You know, he has to be consistent as well. Always been a great athlete, but right now he believes heā€™s a good player, and he is.”

At right tackle, sophomore Patrick Kutas has been one of the most impressive offensive linemen from spring, and now into the first week of fall camp. The 6-6, 313-pound Memphis native has the highest potential out of arguably any offensive lineman on the roster right now. Pittman is extremely high on him, but needs to see more consistency from the soon-to-be 19-year old.

“He just has to be consistent. I mean, when you look at his reps, heā€™s as good as anybody on that field at certain times,” Pittman said. “A great player is a consistent player, so he has to be a little more consistent. And thatā€™s going to come with reps, because that guyā€™s going to turn 19 soon.”

It seems that the tackle position is in good hands. While there may be a few learning moments this season, Arkansas will get to ease into the grind of an SEC schedule with three non-conference games to start.

The Razorbacks open the season in three weeks when they face Western Carolina at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

Hear more of what Sam Pittman had to say about the first week of fall camp below:

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Arkansas Football: Offseason Depth Chart – Offensive Line

Arkansas needed to re-tool their offensive line this offseason, so here’s a glance at what the depth chart looks like ahead of next season.

We know that Arkansas will have a ton of weapons on offense next season, especially with the return of both KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders. However, that won’t mean much if the Razorbacks can’t get some solid play from another veteran-led offensive line.

In Arkansas’ projected two-deep, they’ll have three seniors, one junior and three sophomores, with five of them having SEC experience.

Offensive line coach [autotag]Cody Kennedy[/autotag] is entering his third full-time season in Fayetteville. Last year’s offensive line was a little more experienced than this year’s bunch following the departures of Ricky Stromberg (drafted to Washington in third round of NFL Draft) and Dalton Wagner (signed free agent deal with Las Vegas).

With Stromberg gone, Kennedy needed to do some re-shuffling up front to find an experienced center and help some new pieces fit seamlessly.

Here’s a glance at the two-deep for Arkansas’ offensive line entering next season.