Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

With National Signing Day a week away, Allen Wallace, the national recruiting editor for SuperPrep, takes an interesting look back at some of the past recruiting rankings.

He evaluated 35 schools, including Arkansas, and how his publication rated each school's recruiting class over a 14-year period.

The numbers shouldn't be suprising as Arkansas' classes rated a 33.1, an average of all the Hogs' rankings. Out of the 35 programs considered in Wallace's study, only five schools (Brigham Young, Iowa, Missouri and Pittsburgh and Wisconsin) rated lower than Arkansas. Florida and Florida State topped the list with an 8.0 rating followed closely by Southern Cal (8.1) and Texas (9.1).

With numbers like this, the words from a former Razorback coach still linger in our ears when it came to recruiting at Arkansas.

In 2004, after Houston Nutt turned down the Nebraska job, the former head Hog said this:

"They can't use the NCAA against us in recruits' living rooms anymore. We have to do a great job, not a good job, but a great job of getting back the players like Caleb Miller, Tony Bua and Cedric Cobbs. And it all starts in Arkansas and we're going to build that fence so high they can't leave."

That 2004 class finished 22nd, according to the recruiting Web site Rivals.com. The following year, with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones in the class, Arkansas was at No. 24, according to Rivals.

In 2005, after the end of losing season, it was another quote that had Razorback fans excited about the upcoming recruiting class, which included Springdale's Mitch Mustain and Damian Williams (who have since transferred to Southern Cal):

"I think it is harder, but I do think we are going to have a good recruiting year. And I can say that because of the response I got from Saturday night phone calls. Anyone who watched that game, anyone who witnessed the LSU game [a 19-17 Arkansas loss in Baton Rouge], knows things are bright. That is the reaction that I've gotten.

"It is sad, but true, that you seem to do a better job when things don't go just right. You are more thorough, you are evaluating a little bit harder when you've lost and so you almost have your best years when things don't go just right. That doesn't sound right and shouldn't be, but my experience says there is some truth to that.

"Going by the latest phone calls I have had with recruits and student-athletes, they were pretty high after watching us at LSU and after Ole Miss and Mississippi State. That helped."

But the Razorbacks didn't make the Rivals.com Top 25 list with the 2006 signing class. In fact, the only two classes to be ranked in the top 25 since 2002 were the 2004 and 2005 classes that helped produce the 2006 SEC Western Division title.