Arkansas Business

Bentonville linebacker Garrett Kaufman is one of the top recruits in Arkansas this year and he attended the football camp at Arkansas last week.

Kaufman (6-foot-2, 223 pounds) led Bentonville last year with 110 tackles, including 61 solo stops, seven tackles for loss, three sacks, one interception and two fumble recoveries. He helped lead Bentonville back to the state title game in Arkansas' largest classification.

Attending the camp was helpful for Kaufman, who is also playing baseball this summer. He said Razorback linebackers coach Taver Johnson was particularly helpful to him.

“He taught me to be positive and just finish everything,” Kaufman said. “Like, not stopping at the end. Coach Johnson and one of the other linebacker coaches are real outgoing. Coach Johnson is always keeping you up. He gets on you until the very last minute so there is no quitting early.”

Kaufman took a break from talking about the camp to reflecting back on how his junior season went. It was his first season at linebacker after rushing for nearly 700 yards as a sophomore. Kaufman split running back duties with Tearris Wallace.

“I felt really good,” Kaufman said of his play at linebacker. “I played running back the year before so a position switch so I had to used to everything else. I felt my junior season was really good and it came really natural to play linebacker.”

Kaufman is an extremely hard worker, but he feels he has some areas of his game he is going to have to continue to work on to improve.

“My 40 speed,” Kaufman said. “I run a 4.7, but I can hopefully get it to a mid-4.6. It shouldn't be hard. I'm at a 4.71 or 4.72.”

Arkansas State has offered him a football scholarship, but he's still hearing from others as well. Ivy League schools, Georgetown, Rice and Vanderbilt are showing interest, Kaufman said. Next month he plans to visit Vanderbilt.

Kaufman wants a big season for himself, but especially for Bentonville. Last year the Tigers were undefeated entering the state title game. They lost to Fayetteville to finish 12-1.

Building on that experience is the goal this year, he said. Bentonville returns three offensive starters and Kaufman is one of seven back on defense.

“It was bitter,” Kaufman said of the state title game loss. “I don't know, it was kind of shocking. We played the worst game we could possibly play and Fayetteville played its best. You've got to give it to them they outplayed us. We made mistakes you can't make. I like playing Fayetteville, it's fun, but I don't like losing. We've just got to learn from it and go back this year and play them.”

Kaufman said he is friends with Fayetteville's Austin Allen, Brooks Ellis and Alex Brignoni. All three are committed to Arkansas.

“On the football field not so much,” Kaufman said smiling about his friendship with the Fayetteville players. “Off the field, we get along.”