Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

If a college football recruiting class is best defined by the last four or five signees in that 25-man group — and a few recruiting experts believe that to be the case — then Arkansas fans may look back on Bobby Petrino's last Razorback class as being his best. 

Joining the fold late were two players who could have an immediate impact on a senior-dominated team: linebacker Otha Peters, a Covington, La., product who spurned Tennessee for the Hogs in the final hours, and Mekale McKay, a 6-6 receiver who was a basketball co-Region Player of the Year in Kentucky. The player McKay tied with for the honor was a John Calipari signee for the Kentucky basketball Wildcats. McKay may get some basketball in for Mike Anderson and the Hogs, but for now he's providing a rare 6-foot-6 talent who can outleap any cornerback that defends him.

In fact, McKay's emergence is reminiscent of another player's, a northeast Arkansas talent also with the initials M.M.

Houston Nutt took Marcus Monk on a flyer, an urging by his longtime mentor and friend Charles Ripley as well as others who said they had not seen an athlete quite like Monk, who was a terror on the basketball court. Monk led East Poinsett County to a state basketball championship and may have been the best player in all the classes competing in the state basketball finals.

He figured to also help the UA basketball team by being a two-sport star. Nutt confided with some that he doubted Monk could come in immediately and play.

But on a team that didn't line up a horde of receivers to begin with, Monk made his presence known as a freshman, and by his junior year in 2006, he was enough of a weapon to command double-teams and take some of the attention away from the running back trio of Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis.

When Arkansas showed it could pass over the top to Monk in the 2006 game at No. 2 Auburn, it allowed Darren McFadden to run wild in a huge upset that propelled the Hogs to a 10-4 season and an SEC West championship.

It's also safe to say that his nonsensical injury in the 2007 preseason, when the Hog defense was allowed to take a shot at him in practice and ultimately knock him out for eight weeks with a knee injury, may have cost Nutt and Arkansas two or three games in the win-loss record and helped ruin a season with high expectations.

Look at the difference in Arkansas' performance against eventual national champion LSU in the regular-season finale in 2007, with Monk, compared with the Hog team against Alabama or Auburn earlier in that season. Note, if you still have the video of that LSU game, how Arkansas' running game, and the vaunted "Wildcat" formation, opened up simply with the threat of Monk as a wide receiver. Casey Dick may not have been the most accurate passer in UA history, but he could usually get the ball in Monk's vicinity, and Monk would catch anything.

Just as Monk wasn't expected to figure so early for the Hogs, current Arkansas coaches figured McKay needed to add bulk to his 190 pound frame and likely would redshirt. Also, consider that McKay has much more talent to contend with than Monk had in cracking the lineup. Those redshirt plans seem out the window now, however.

We learned earlier last week that McKay and fellow freshman Keon Hatcher have been literally battling to get to the huddle faster for playing time. Another comparison has likened the stringbean McKay to departed Greg Childs (though no one would have accused Childs of rushing back to huddles to get playing time the way McKay has).

McKay delayed his signing for football until his basketball season was finished last spring. In the end, Petrino won him over Ole Miss and Hugh Freeze, who needed immediate help everywhere. No doubt Rebels basketball coach Andy Kennedy tried to make a push to bring him to Oxford as well.