Arkansas Razorbacks News: Building the Offensive Line and NFL Draft Prospects

Arkansas picked up four offensive line recruits this cycle, but they weren’t the highest rated group. That is just fine with Bret Bielema and offensive line coach Kurt Anderson who decided to focus on a very specific type of lineman this year. Rather than fixating on how many stars a player has, the dialed in on more “blue-collar” guys. More here on what went into identifying players and the New England Patriots model they followed.

Bielema seems to be pretty optimistic about the progression of the line heading into next year, he’s got four starters returning in addition to the new commits coming in. There should be a good mix of experience and talent, and ESPN has them rated pretty high among the SEC. In their post signing day position rankings. The Hogs’ O-Line ranks fifth.

Speaking of the SEC, SB Nation has a ranking of all the college football divisions in 2016. They tell us things that we largely already knew, but it was interesting to see how far ahead the SEC West ranked above everyone else. It was also jarring to see how bad the SEC East was. Not only were they the worst Power 5 division, they ranked below the MWC Mountain division.

CBS Sports has a list of 1,000 prospects for the NFL Draft, which seems wildly excessive but shows where a lot of former Razorbacks stand at the moment. Right now five Razorbacks are in line to get drafted. Drew Morgan is currently below that line but is rising quickly due to his performance in the East-West Shrine Game, and could use the combine to improve his stock as well.

Last week the Razorback pitching staff had a major blow with the announcement that Keaton McKinney will have to undergo Tommy John Surgery and will be out for the year. That could affect the Hogs’ 35 man roster for this season. Dave Van Horn is waiting to see if the NCAA will grant a waiver to not count McKinney due to his injury.