Hogs Lose Quarterback to Injury, Could Change Plans Recruiting That Position
Hog Recruiting
by: Otis Kirk
Photos Courtesy: University of Arkansas Athletics
FAYETTEVILLE — Redshirt freshman walk-on quarterback Kade Renfro suffered an ACL injury in a practice last week according to Sam Pittman on Monday.
Pittman described how the Ole Miss transfer was injured in practice while also listing who caught his eye among the younger players.
"I thought (Donte) Buckner really did a good job in the scrimmage," Pittman said. "Offensive line played well. Chase Lowery picked a pass and took it back for a touchdown. I thought (Lucas) Coley threw the ball well. Eric Thomas made some plays.
"Towards the end of the scrimmage, Renfro just planted, a non-contact injury, he just planted. So he'll be out. He has an ACL, so he'll be out for a while. But I hated it for him. Just planted and gave way on him, so I'm very sad for him, the whole team is. It's a part of the game you wish we could get rid of, but it certainly happened."
Renfro didn't play in any games this season, but was well thought of by the staff. That leaves Arkansas with starter KJ Jefferson, backup Malik Hornsby and Coley, a true freshman, going forward.
The Razorbacks haven't signed a quarterback in the Class of 2022. Does this change Pittman's thinking on that?
"Well, I think it certainly makes you look," Pittman said. "I think if you ended up doing that, you'd certainly need to sit down and talk to Malik and KJ about it before you ever would do it. I just don't know… I think one of y'all asked me about scholarship numbers and all those things and man, I just don't know. I know it's going to be fluid. We have an opportunity to get six more scholarships, but you'd have to lose six kids to the portal. I don't know if it'll happen or not, but it seems like it's headed that direction number-wise. If we got to a total of six, would we use it on a quarterback? Possibly. But Coley's getting a lot of reps right now, as well. So I think you'd have to wait a little bit over the next week and a half to find that out, whether you felt comfortable there or not and he's getting a lot better, so we'll just wait and see on that."
Former Little Rock Parkview quarterback Landon Rogers is a true freshman who was moved to tight end during the season. Is moving Rogers back a possibility?
"Certainly is a thought that would certainly save us number-wise, especially for spring ball," Pittman said. "We don't want to slow – that's a great question – We don't want to slow Landon's potential at at tight end or wide receiver, one of the two. Barry's (Odom) trying to get him over on defense. We don't want to slow down his potential there but at the same time, he's got a lot of arm and we certainly have that in the back of our mind that we could move him back to quarterback for spring, but again, they would only be if we thought he could be a two or a three. Otherwise we'd feel like he can be a two or better as a tight end wide receiver."
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