Arkansas Football: Preseason Depth Chart – Tight Ends

The Arkansas tight end room is short on experience, but has an abundance of potential. Here’s what the depth chart looks like ahead of week one.

Tight ends remain one of the biggest question marks for the Arkansas offense heading into their week one matchup with Western Carolina.

Over the summer, we looked at Arkansas’ tight ends groups and projected the depth chart ahead of fall camp. Now, with fall camp in the rearview mirror, the situation at the tight end is a little more clear for [autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] and new tight ends coach [autotag]Morgan Turner[/autotag].

As mentioned before, Turner brings an impressive resume with a proven track record of developing NFL-level tight ends, but will have quite the task in his first season at Arkansas.

The Razorback tight end room is short on experience this season, and Turner will need to rely on a handful of young guys in his first season with the Hogs. However, after fall camp, it’s easy to see that this young group has a lot of upside and potential.

Here’s what Arkansas’ tight end depth chart is looking like as we head the season.

Arkansas football: Offseason Depth Chart – Tight Ends

Arkansas’ tight ends are the least experienced group on the roster but have plenty of potential. Here’s how the depth chart looks for 2023.

[autotag]Arkansas football[/autotag]’s least experienced position group entering next season is, by far, tight end.

The tight end room was completely re-tooled in the offseason following Dowell Loggains’ exit to take the offensive coordinator position at South Carolina. Pittman swung for the fences by tabbing former Stanford tight end coach, [autotag]Morgan Turner[/autotag], to replace Loggains.

Turner brings an impressive resume with a proven track record of developing NFL-level tight ends, but will have quite the task in his first season at Arkansas.

The Razorbacks lost veteran tight end Trey Knox, who decided to follow Loggains to South Carolina following an impressive 2022 campaign. Without Knox, the Arkansas tight end room is short on experience. Turner will need to rely on a handful of talented, but severely inexperienced, guys in his first season with the Hogs.

Here’s what Arkansas’ tight end depth chart is looking like as we head into next season.

Arkansas football: Latest recruiting news and updates for 2024 class

As focus shifts from the 2023 recruiting class to 2024, here’s some of the latest updates when it comes to the Razorbacks.

Arkansas football isn’t officially done with the 2023 recruiting class but the main focus has already shifted towards the 2024 class.

Right now, [autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] has only secured one commit for the 2024 class, Kavion Henderson – a four-star defensive lineman from Alabama, but that number will grow as we make our way through the spring and summer.

Officially, Arkansas has offered a scholarship to 261 players in the 2024 class according to 247Sports.com’s recruiting database. This will be the first full recruiting cycle for new coordinators [autotag]Travis Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Dan Enos[/autotag]. Williams, alongside co-defensive coordinator [autotag]Marcus Woodson[/autotag], come to the Razorbacks with well-respected recruiting backgrounds in key areas such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

Enos is in his second stint with the Razorbacks and has staff members below him with strong recruiting acumen. [autotag]Jimmy Smith[/autotag] (running backs coach) and [autotag]Kenny Guiton[/autotag] (wide receivers coach) are two of the better recruiters on staff. Arkansas also added [autotag]Morgan Turner[/autotag] from Stanford as tight ends coach, who has an impressive track record of recruiting future NFL tight ends.

Here’s a quick look at some of the latest updates for Arkansas recruiting in the 2024 class.

National writer dubs Arkansas football ‘losers’ after offseason coaching hires

Not everyone is a fan of Sam Pittman’s offseason moves. Razorbacks dubbed “losers” by one national writer after staff changes ahead of 2023 season.

[autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] may have had one of the busiest and stressful offseasons that an Arkansas coach has ever had. After the wheels fell off early in the 2022 season and the Razorbacks limped to a 7-6 finish, Pittman virtually cleaned house when it came to key staff members including both coordinators – [autotag]Barry Odom[/autotag] and [autotag]Kendal Briles[/autotag].

Odom left to become the next head coach at UNLV, which could’ve been expected at some point as he has previous head coaching experience and no signs of giving up on running his own program. The most unexpected move was Arkansas losing Briles, who left for the same position – offensive coordinator – at TCU, after receiving a raise to stay with the Razorbacks. Mississippi State made a serious push to bring Briles to Starkville before TCU did, which he then used as leverage to receive another raise. When he tried to do the same after the Horned Frogs came calling, Pittman and Briles parted ways.

Brandon Marcello, national writer for 247Sports.com, isn’t a huge fan of Arkansas losing both coordinators and in his latest column “Coaching Carousel: Winners and Losers” listed Arkansas among the “losers” of this offseason.

“Arkansas lost this offseason more than half of its staff, including both coordinators who deserve a heap of credit for the Razorbacks’ sudden turnaround in 2021,” said Marcello. “Change could be a good thing, sure. Either way, this is an inflection point in the Pittman era.”

To replace Odom, Pittman hired former UCF defensive coordinator Travis Williams and former Florida State defensive backs coach Marcus Woodson as co-defensive coordinator. As for replacing Briles, Pittman turned to a familiar face in Dan Enos to run the Arkansas offense after having previously served as the Razorbacks’ offensive coordinator from 2015-2017.

Williams and Woodson don’t have experience being coordinators at the SEC level and while Enos has plenty of SEC experience – including a pretty successful couple of seasons last time he was in Fayetteville – there’s going to be a big adjustment for he and his players. That could be the reason why Marcello isn’t very high on the Razorbacks entering a critical juncture in the Sam Pittman era.

One thing that Marcello didn’t highlight was the other hires that Pittman made this offseason which were widely applauded. He hired [autotag]Ben Sowders[/autotag] from Louisville as strength and conditioning coach, [autotag]Morgan Turner[/autotag] from Stanford as tight ends coach and [autotag]Deron Wilson[/autotag] from Florida as defensive backs coach.

I think if you zoom out and look at Arkansas’ offseason from a bigger perspective, Pittman did about the best job anyone could’ve in his position. Will all of these hires pan out and be considered “home runs” in the end? Time will tell.

For now, it’s best to have patience and see where this goes. Spring practices are right around the corner and that will give us a better glimpse into the future of Razorbacks football.

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