To Go or Not to Go

It is a strange thing the University of Arkansas Razorback Football team has gone through this week. Not very often does our football program experience so many players requesting scholarship releases in the numbers that they have this year. And the magic number thus far? 5! There have been a total of 5 Razorback football players that have requested and been granted a release from their scholarship so they could transfer schools and play football at a different college.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? Well, to answer this question, we first need to look at the information a little more up close. First things first, we need to take a look at the players that have been requesting a release. WR Lance Ray, K/P Eddie Camara, TE Ryan Calendar, OL Cam Feldt, LB Austin Moss. Anyone recognize these names? Probably the only one is Lance Ray. He did some kick returning last year after Dennis Johnson was injured and Ray caught 1 pass from Mallett for 6 yards. I’m sure you have heard Camara’s name being mentioned in the off season last year. He and Hocker were locked up in a SOLID battle but eventually Hocker took the top spot.

So, to be completely honest, the Hogs loosing these 5 guys is not going to severely damage the line-up. All of these 5 guys were farther down on the depth chart and were more than likely NOT going to see playing time this year, with the exception of Ray, unless the starters were plagued with injuries. So no real harm done there. Another positive to take out of this is that the Hogs have signed a total of 31 players for the next season…that puts them over the limit in accordance with NCAA guidelines. However, because they were 3 signees short on the list last year, 3 players can count back to last year’s so we hit the cut off of 28 signees. BUT, with the release of 5 players, that puts us sitting better in regards to the number of players who have signed scholarship letters of intent and those that are going to sign scholarship letters when they enroll over the summer. So, since these 5 guys decided to pursue football careers else where, Arkansas might be able to get all of the scholarship players signed and actually have a scholarship for them.

Somehow, the numbers always have a way of working themselves out. So as far as I can tell, there is no cause for concern. There are no underlying issues in the football program other than we are bringing in TONS of good talent and the good talent is getting developed.

-IronHogFan

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