HOGS A BIG HIT with duo from Manvel, Texas.
Arkansas hosted running back D’Vaughn Pennamon and linebacker Jordan Carmouche, both from Manvel, Texas, on official visits over the weekend and Carmouche left as a Razorback.
Carmouche, 6-1, 225 pounds, 4.6 seconds in the 40yard dash, orally committed to Arkansas on Saturday evening after receiving more than 20 other scholarship offers from schools that included Texas, Oklahoma, Stanford, Baylor and Arizona State.
“I just felt like this was home, and I think they could use me and I could come in and get early playing time,” Carmouche said. “I just love the relationship with the coaches, and I love Fayetteville.”
Carmouche said he was thinking of committing before the trip.
“I was just seeing if it felt like home to me, being down here with the players and seeing if I connected with them,” he said. “I did.”
Carmouche said he communicates almost every day with Hope defensive end McTelvin Agim, who is orally committed to the Razorbacks as well. Carmouche almost committed to the Hogs on Sept. 5, the same day as Agim.
“I wanted to do it at a more special time and make sure that it was the right decision,” Carmouche said.
National recruiting analyst Tom Lemming of CBS Sports Network rates Carmouche as a four-star prospect.
Pennamon, who is orally committed to Ole Miss, was accompanied by his mother, Elaine Winn, and his father, Carey Pennamon, on his trip to Fayetteville.
“I just had a really great time just connecting with the coaches and the team,” Pennamon said. “I really feel like this is a pretty good place. The fan base is great. The atmosphere is lovely.”
He spoke about the impact of Carmouche’s commitment on his recruitment.
“I’m really happy for him because he’s one of my closest friends on the team, so it’s really big for me,” Pennamon said.” He told me last night before he did it, so I was kind of excited.”
Pennamon, 5-11, 212, 4.45, has rushed 58 times for 785 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. He has more than 25 scholarship offers, including ones from Arkansas, Ole Miss, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and UCLA.
Arkansas running back Alex Collins, who has 960 yards with four regular-season games remaining, is closing in on his third consecutive 1,000-yard season. Pennamon said he also was impressed Saturday when Collins ran for 173 yards and 5 touchdowns on 16 carries against Tennessee-Martin.
“That was amazing,” said Pennamon, who is rated a three-star-plus prospect by Lemming. “He had a really good game. Five touchdowns is a lot. You don’t get that every day.
Pennamon’s mother raved about the trip.
“Everybody is just so amazingly friendly and they make you feel at home,” she said. “We don’t get to see trees of color at home. The trees, mountains, all of it, just an amazing experience.”
He and Carmouche hung out Saturday night with former Manvel product, Arkansas junior defensive linemen Taiwan Johnson, and two other Houston area products, sophomore running back Denzel Evans and safety Willie Sykes. The three current Hogs urged him to commit.
“They were just talking and saying I should do it,” Pennamon said. “Then it was like, just think about it and talk to them about it and keep them updated.”
Elaine Winn said she would approve of her son being a Razorback.
“I would be totally on board and be down here every day,” she said.
MACON IMPRESSED
Arkansas commitment Daryl Macon, a shooting guard, and highly recruited guard Malik Monk of Bentonville took official visits to Arkansas over the weekend.
Macon, 6-4, 185, earned first-team junior-college All-America honors as a freshman at Holmes (Miss.) Community College last season when he averaged 23 points.
“It’s the best weekend I’ve ever had,” Macon said of the visit. “It was a lot of love. I’ve never been in a situation like that.”
Macon played high school basketball at Little Rock Parkview and for the Arkansas Hawks in the spring and summer before making his way to junior college. He said numerous people asked Monk if he was going to be a Hog.
“That was the most-asked question,” Macon said. “He would say the same thing to everybody, ‘I don’t know yet.’ ”
Macon said the way Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson treats players also stood out.
“We went to his house for dinner,” he said. “It just seems like they’re one big family, and they all protect and have each other’s back. That was the most important part of the whole visit.”
COOK IN TOWN
Junior college forward Arlando Cook and Connors State Community College in Oklahoma will play Arkansas Baptist College at 7 tonight at Dunbar Community Center in Little Rock.
Cook, 6-8, 205, recently reopened his recruiting after orally committing to Nevada. Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson and assistant T.J. Cleveland are expected to attend tonight’s game.
Cook took an unofficial visit to Fayetteville on Aug. 29.
E-mail Richard Davenport at
rdavenport@arkansasonline.com