Cornerback recruit Toriano Pride puts Arkansas at the top of his list after visit.
University of Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman, his staff and the campus facilities surpassed the expectations of sophomore cornerback Toriano Pride during his visit Saturday.
“It wasn’t anything like I expected,” he said. “I ended up loving it. I love it at Ar- kansas.”
Pride, 5-11, 179 pounds, of St. Louis Lutheran North has 12 scholarship offers, including Arkansas, Florida State, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Minnesota.
Talking with Pittman, defensive coordinator Barry Odom and cornerbacks coach Sam Carter was the highlight of the trip.
“The coaching staff treated me like family, and it felt like home,” Pride said. “I built a relationship with Coach Pittman. That was my first time talking to him. He just kept it real with me, just like Coach Carter.”
Pride appreciated his oneon-one time with Carter.
“I felt the love when I was talking to Coach Carter,” he said. “He showed me some film. He showed me some technique he teaches his DBs. He was showing me the proper technique. He had some film of me and showed me what I did wrong and what I did right.”
Other people within the program, including the players, also made an impression on Pride.
“It just really opened my eyes,” he said. “I was able to meet some of the people that are there. I talked to some freshmen like Trey Knox.”
Pride and his father had visited Missouri, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas and Illinois before making the trip to Fayetteville.
“Those are probably the best facilities I’ve visited,” Pride said of Arkansas. “I went into the locker room, and I thought that was the game locker room and they said that was the practice locker room. That amused me. The stadium was bigger than I thought it would be. It was huge.”
He plans to make his way back to Arkansas.
“That’s probably my No. 1 school right now,” he said. “I think we’re going back up for the spring game or spring practice.”
BOYKIN FINDS ‘FIT’
Arkansas landed the commitment of defensive lineman Andy Boykin on Sunday in large part because of his relationship with Coach Sam Pittman.
Boykin, 6-3, 301, of LaGrange (Ga.) Troup County had accumulated more than 25 scholarship offers during the recruiting process. Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee and Florida were just some of the offers.
“At the end of the day, you have to find the one fit, and I think Arkansas and Coach Pittman is the one fit,” Troup County Coach Tanner Glisson said. “Coach Pittman knew him and had a relationship with him being from Georgia.”
Glisson was hired in 2015 and has seen numerous coaches come through the doors of the school.
“I think we’ve had close to 20 head coaches come through here since I’ve been here, from Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Kirby [Smart] and all those guys,” Glisson said. “Coach Pittman was just very, very humble and very appreciative of our time. Man, it was just great. I would like to say it was really, really refreshing.”
Boykin, who’s the third cousin of former Georgia and NFL cornerback Brandon Boykin, will be the third prospect from the high school to attend an SEC West university in the past two years.
Glisson sees Pittman doing well in Fayetteville while using his contacts from his time at Georgia to land talent from the Peach State.
“I think he’s going to do a tremendous job there,” Glisson said. “Everybody I deal with does a good job, but I think just finding that right fit, I think Coach Pittman is the right fit for Arkansas. He’s going to make a splash in Georgia. There’s a lot of people that want to play in the SEC.”