GIBSON’S LEAP

from walk-on to starter nets scholarship.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Arkansas offensive lineman Johnny Gibson got an early Christmas present from Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema on Saturday night.

Bielema announced at a team meeting after the Razorbacks arrived for the Belk Bowl that Gibson is going on scholarship starting for the spring semester.

Before the announcement, Bielema played a joke on Gibson and offensive tackle Brian Wallace to set it up.

“I said, ‘We’ve already had one noise complaint. Johnny Gibson and B-Wall please stand up,’ because they’re roommates,” Bielema said before Sunday’s practice. “They’re looking like, ‘What did I do?’

“So I started yelling at them, getting into them pretty good, and I said, ‘Well, what are you supposed to do if you’re the newest scholarship player at Arkansas?’

“The place went nuts, so it was pretty cool.”

Gibson, a redshirt sophomore from Dumas, came to Arkansas as a walk-on, but he started the last four regular-season games at right guard and drew praise from coaches and teammates.

“The feeling right now of being a scholarship athlete at my dream school is just unreal,” Gibson tweeted Saturday night.

Bielema said Gibson earned his scholarship through a combination of hard work on the field and in the classroom.

“We were going out and looking at junior-college linemen,” Bielema said. “To me he’s kind of like an in-house developed juco lineman.

“He hasn’t played much, but he’s been in our system for three years and he’s changed his body and now I think he’s going to be a good player for the next two years.”