LITTLE ROCK — Forrest City receiver Davyon “Sleepy” McKinney, who orally committed to Arkansas during the summer, has yet to don a Razorbacks uniform but already has a fan in Greenwood.
McKinney, 6-3, 180 pounds, 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, was leaving the field after the Mustangs’ 55-18 loss to Greenwood in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs when a father pointed out McKinney to his 11-year-old daughter.
“He told her he’s a future Razorback and asked her if she would like to meet him,” Forrest City Coach Rich Trail said. “He took his daughter up to Sleepy, and Sleepy stopped and gave her a hug and was nice enough to visit with them for a little bit.”
Both were so impressed that the father wrote an email to Forrest City’s athletic director complimenting the outgoing and personable McKinney.
“It apparently made her night and she said something like she already had a favorite Razorback,” Trail said. “Evidently he made an impact. He’s a great kid, so that doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
Trail is quick to credit McKinney’s mother, Doris Banks, for molding her son into a respectful and compassionate young man.
“Sleepy was a great kid when he got to us,” Trail said. “I certainly can’t take creditfor his attitude because it was good from the start.
“It just shows how easy it is to get along with him. People can see by this example how fortunate we’ve been to have him for the past three years.”
TOUTED SNAPPER OFFERED
Arkansas long-snapper Rhett Richardson will exhaust his eligibiity after the season, so last week the Hogs offered a scholarship to Bryce Haynes of Cumming (Ga.) Pinecrest Academy.
Haynes, 6-4, 185 pounds, also has offers from North Carolina and Utah State. He’s been in communication with Arkansas assistant John L. Smith and graduate assistant Marty Biagi.
“I was really, really excited,” Haynes said. “I was kind of surprised because I didn’t go to a camp at Arkansas this summer. I went to a lot of camps trying to get looked at over the summer.”
Haynes is rated as the No. 1 snapper in the nation by Chris Rubio of Rubio Long Snapping.
Rubio judges snappers by how quickly they snap the ball back to the punter. Rubio said anything below .80 seconds is considered good. He said Haynes’ snaps are in the .60 range.
“That ball is coming in at over 45 miles per hour,” Rubio said. “I’ve worked with hundreds of kids over the past nine years, and he’s probablywithin the top five of high school kids I’ve ever worked with.” OLB CONSIDERING UA
Defensive end/linebacker Kameron Wood of Birmingham (Ala.) John Carroll orally committed to Ole Miss during the summer but wants to check out Arkansas before making a final decision.
Wood, 6-3, 225, 4.50, plans to make official visits to Arkansas and Ole Miss. Hogs linebackers coach Reggie Johnson has told him the Razorbacks like him as an outside linebacker.
“I want to take an official visit up there and take a good look at it and see what Arkansas is all about and see if I made the wrong decision,”Wood said. “This is like a second opinion to let me know if Ole Miss is the right decision.”
E-mail Richard Davenport at rdavenport@arkansasonline.com
Sports, Pages 26 on 11/26/2010