QB Ricky Town Reportedly Visiting Arkansas Wednesday Night

Ricky Town was one of the top quarterbacks in the class of 2015. After committing very early to Alabama, he switched his commitment to his near-hometown USC Trojans all the way back in January 2014. However, after going through spring practice and the beginning of preseason camp, he announced last weekend that he was leaving the Trojans, and apparently is seriously considering coming to Fayetteville to join the Razorbacks.

In fact, it's being widely reported that he'll be on campus Wednesday night for an unofficial visit. Richard Davenport is including a note that Arkansas has not yet offered Town a scholarship, but we'll see if anything changes tonight or tomorrow. We know Arkansas is certainly open to signing another quarterback, as they courted former Purdue quarterback Danny Etling earlier this summer.

Arkansas of course signed Ty Storey in the 2015 class, who was also a highly-rated passer. But as has been proven in recent days, you always want as much talent on campus as possible because you never know how the depth chart will work out. If he comes to Arkansas, after redshirting this fall, he'd battle Austin Allen, Rafe Peavey, and Storey for the starting spot in 2016. Austin seems locked in as the backup this season, but that pecking order could certainly change by next spring. Town was a higher-rated recruit than any of the players on Arkansas' roster.

247Sports originally reported Town is considering Florida in addition to Arkansas, and Alligator Army has the background story on Town's career to this point:

The backstory here is that Town committed to Alabama in August 2013, when Nussmeier was entering his second season as the Crimson Tide's offensive coordinator (a position he took over after the departure of Jim McElwain for Colorado State). After an uneven 2013 season in that role, Nussmeier was hired in the same role by Michigan on January 8, 2014 — and after Alabama hired Lane Kiffin to replace Nussmeier two days later, Town spent just two more weeks as an Alabama commit, flipping to USC before the end of the month.

At the time, that was spun as a big-time Southern California player — Town was a five-star quarterback then, and hails from Ventura, 90 minutes from USC's campus in theoretically perfect SoCal traffic — picking the "hometown" team more than Town finding a new home after Nussmeier's departure. But Town also had a rough senior year (at least by the standards of elite prep quarterbacks), and fell slightly from his perch as arguably the cream of the 2015 class to a rung where "another very good passer" made more sense as a descriptor — and his decision to transfer so soon into his USC career certainly casts his motives in a different light.

Town may visit Gainesville after his trip to Fayetteville tonight, and almost definitely will if he doesn't get offered by the Arkansas coaches.

Town would be the most high profile quarterback transfer to Arkansas since Ryan Mallett left Michigan to come to Fayetteville in 2008. Of course, the Razorbacks infamously lost former 5* quarterback Mitch Mustain to USC in 2007 so this would be a strange coincidence.