Tag: Trey Knox

Jamil Walker transforming Hogs in the weight room

Strength and conditioning coach, Jamil Walker, is turning the Razorbacks into one of the most physical teams in the SEC.

Making sure you have the best strength and conditioning program is an undervalued component of a successful college football team.

The best teams have professional-level strength and conditioning programs, which is why the SEC players are described as the country’s biggest, strongest, and fastest.

The Razorbacks can hang with the biggest and the worst in the SEC, thanks to Jamil Walker.

“We look like an SEC football team, in my opinion, now,” coach Sam Pittman said about the team’s physical development. “I think we’ve done a really good job of developing our guys to get bigger and stronger, but also we spent a lot of time on speed development training as well.”

Walker has been a part of the Razorbacks football program since 2019, coming over from Georgia. Before that, he was at his alma mater, Wisconsin, where he played running back.

Walker has received two raises since joining the Razorbacks, validating why he is vital to the football programs. In addition, he helped keep KJ Jefferson under his goal playing weight of 240-pounds.

Many attribute Trey Knox’s body transformation as an example of Walker’s contribution to the team’s strength and conditioning. Knox went from playing wide receiver to tight end over the 16 months, adding good weight in the process – more than 40 pounds – and is expected to be one of the best tight ends in the conference.

“He’s as good as any strength coach in America,” tight ends coach Dowell Loggains said. “You always hear the stories about how important the strength coach is. You don’t know until you get here and see how much time they spend with those guys. The strength staff deserves a ton of credit. It’s a huge reason why we win, and those guys have done a great job.”

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Arkansas depth chart: Expect the best season from Arkansas tight ends in a long time

Arkansas has both natural pass-catchers and natural blockers at the tight end spot this year.

Tight end has been a staple position at Arkansas for the better part of the last 20 years.

Hunter Henry and DJ Williams were naturals for the spot as soon as they arrived in Fayetteville. Others were converts. AJ Derby. Chris Gragg.

In 2022, Arkansas will have both at the top of its depth chart as the Razorbacks look to return to the position to its pass-catching glory of the last decade.

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman and tight ends coach Dowell Loggains aren’t short on bodies. The Hogs are loaded with potential both young and old at the unit and given the changes some of the returners made, it could be group’s most successful season in the last several.

This is how the tight end hierarchy shakes out this season.

Arkansas expecting big things from a bigger Trey Knox

A bigger Trey Knox means a badder Trey Knox this year for Arkansas.

Trey Knox went from the doghouse to coach Sam Pittman’s favorite when he made the shift from wide receiver to tight end last year.

The senior made the shift from out wide two seasons ago to the inside last year. He was a good player on the outside for Arkansas his freshman when he had 28 grabs for three touchdowns but he took a step back his sophomore season when he had only seven catches for 70 yards.

Pittman and the Arkansas coaching staff asked if he wanted to change positions. Considering his place in the depth chart, Knox jumped at the chance. In his first year at tight end, he had 20 catches for 141 yards and a touchdown.

Going into his fourth year, Knox has bulked up. The 6-foot-5 inch former wide receiver is up to 233 pounds per the Arkansas media guide. That size can only help as he continues to adjust to the position.

With his return and those 20 receptions, Knox is the most experienced pass-catcher on the whole roster. The Razorbacks lost Treylon Burks to the first round of the NFL draft and No. 2 wideout Tyson Morris to exhausted eligibility.

 

Hogs football adds three walk-ons to scholarship

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman gave scholarships to a tight end, linebacker and wide receiver on Thursday.

Arkansas football still plans to bring in three more players to the team via transfer this offseason. That’s even after the Razorbacks added three walk-ons to scholarship on Thursday.

Tight end Nathan Bax, linebacker Jackson Woodard and wide receiver Harper Cole were all added to scholarship status this week. They are the 84th, 85th and 86th scholarship players on the roster, which is one over the 85-mark limit. The players do not, however, count against the recruiting class, which still has three open spots.

All three players saw time on special teams last year. Bax is vying to be the team’s third tight end this season behind [autotag]Trey Knox[/autotag] and [autotag]Hudson Henry[/autotag]. Woodard is attempting to crack the two-deep at linebacker. Cole’s primary focus is special teams.

Arkansas finished spring camp a week ago and the Hogs open the season Sept. 3 against Cincinnati.

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Trey Knox impressed at scrimmage Saturday: “I feel like I can make a lot of money playing tight end”

Trey Knox took a step forward in 2021. But 2022 looks like a breakout.

Times have changed.

Two years ago, during Sam Pittman’s first season at Arkansas, [autotag]Trey Knox[/autotag] took a step backward. The man who had better receiving numbers than [autotag]Treylon Burks[/autotag] during their freshmen seasons was suddenly demoted, in Pittman’s doghouse. He had gone from 28 grabs to seven, from three touchdowns to zero.

In 2022, Knox moved to tight end, a position Arkansas badly needed depth. The move wasn’t Knox’s first choice, but his willingness to alter his game impressed the coaching staff and he finished with 20 receptions and a touchdown.

Saturday, during Arkansas’ scrimmage inside Walker Pavilion, he impressed more than the coaches with his new look. A former skinny wide receiver who needed to put on some pounds his freshman year now looks more like DJ Williams.

“I put on about 20 pounds to get to about 240,” Knox said. “I feel like I can make a lot of money playing tight end.”

That’s scary. His talent flashed enough in that first season that Arkansas’ three-headed monster out side – Knox, Burks and Mike Woods – was thought to be dangerous forever. Woods transferred. Burks is off to the NFL. Only Knox remains of the legacy. He hauled in three catches for 30 yards – the best numbers of the day – on Saturday.

Tight ends getting deeper while Trey Knox is out with concussion

Arkansas doesn’t use the tight end as much as it used to, but the group looks like it could make a huge leap from 2021.

Trey Knox’s return from the doghouse in 2021 was one of the brighter stories for Arkansas football in a season filled with good ones. But he has missed spring ball as he recovers from a concussion he suffered in a car wreck.

Knox is recovering from the injury and coach Sam Pittman expects him to healthy come the fall. In the meantime, his absence has given more opportunity for the tight end group.

Junior [autotag]Hudson Henry[/autotag] is the most experienced of the corps and after he was in and out of the lineup last year dealing an injury of his own, the spring has offered him a chance to get back to what made him one of the most highly touted tight ends in the country coming out of high school.

Behind him is junior [autotag]Nathan Bax[/autotag], a transfer from Illinois State who is now in his third year in the program. He has impressed offensive coordinator [autotag]Kendal Briles[/autotag].

“He’s played with our ones a bunch and he’s been one of those guys that if guys were to get injured in practice, you’d plug him in and you really don’t miss a beat. He doesn’t look flashy or look like he’s a great player, but he doesn’t mess things up either,” Briles said.

Arkansas’ offensive isn’t one geared to using the tight end as often as some of the offenses have in the last 10 years. But Knox still had 20 grabs last year at a spot at which he was unfamiliar before the season began.

[autotag]Tyrus Washington[/autotag] has been the most impressive freshman of the three on the roster so far this spring, Briles suggested.

“We’ve got maybe seven guys that are all mid-terms that have come in and it’s great to have all those guys at practice.”

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Best Arkansas football recruit from every state since the year 2011

Check out the list of best players from every state Arkansas has recruited since 2011.

Much like its 2021 season, Arkansas 2022 recruiting class is its best in a generation.

Sam Pittman and Co. hauled in the No. 19 class in the country per 247Sports’ rankings. Landing some of the best in-state products helped, but a national footprint also seems to be growing for the Razorbacks.

With that in mind, we considered the best recruits across the country to play for Arkansas since the recruiting class that came in that 2021 season. Eighteen states have been represented as determined by 247Sports recruiting database.

The list does not include states from which junior-college players were from, nor does it include players who were recruited from states otherwise unlisted but the players did not play in a game. It also does not include members of the 2021 or 2022 class.

Some expected states – Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana – had difficult decisions. Some others had only one player.

Who did we miss? Let us know.

WATCH: KJ Jefferson finds Trey Knox to pull Arkansas close to Ole Miss

KJ Jefferson finds Trey Knox in the end zone as Arkansas pulls closer to Ole Miss.

After giving up a field goal on the first possession of the second half, the Razorbacks responded to Ole Miss with a touchdown.

Quarterback KJ Jefferson round tight end/wide receiver Trey Knox on play-action from three yards. Cam Little’s ensuing extra-point made it 24-21 Rebels with 7:30 left in the third quarter.

Freshman running back Rocket Sanders was the best player on the drive. He ran three times for 53 yards, including 42-yarder to move the Razorbacks from their own 35 to the Ole Miss 23.

Quarterback KJ Jefferson completed all three of his passes on the drive, one for a loss of one on a wide receiver screen to Tyson Morris then one on the sideline to Treylon Burks for six yards.

The touchdown is Knox’s first since he caught three in 2019. The catch was his first of the season. He changed from wideout to tight end in Week 4.