LITTLE ROCK — Last week was a good week for Florida quarterback Tyler Cogswell.
Cogswell, 6-5, 225 pounds, 4.9 seconds in the 40-yard dash, received a scholarship offer from Arkansas last Friday after calling Razorbacks offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Paul Petrino.
“I was really excited about it,” said Cogswell, who plays for Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage High School. “It pretty much made my week. “
Cogswell also has scholarship offers from Nebraska, Central Michigan, Hawaii, South Alabama and Florida International.
“He [Petrino] said he’s been evaluating me since January, and he came and watched me practice last Monday and he said I impressed him a lot,” Cogswell said. “I called him and he offered me. He said I performed really well at the practice.”
The Hogs rank high with Cogswell.
“Oh, they’re definitely one of my top schools right now,” Cogswell said. “They’re really high on my list because I’ve built such a great relationship with him [Petrino].”
Cogswell, who completed 117 of 214 passes for 1,833 yards and 23 touchdowns as a junior, also said he was humbled by Petrino showing up for his practice May 14.
“It was really just a blessing for him to be there and to be evaluated by a big school like them,” Cogswell said. “It was pretty cool to just to have a big name like him on campus watching over me. It was good. I had a really good practice that day.”
Cogswell visited Arkansas on Feb. 11 for a Junior Day and is planning a return trip soon.
“I plan to visit the first week of my summer, which is the week of June 3,” said Cogswell, who also said he plans to choose a school by midsummer. “I’ll be up that week.”
LINEBACKER EYES HOGS
Tennessee linebacker/running back Walker Jones said he’s interested in Arkansas and other schools despite his family’s history with Alabama.
Jones’ brother, Barrett, won last year’s Outland Trophy — which is awarded to the best interior lineman in the nation — and is returning for his senior season at Alabama. Another brother, Harrison, plays tight end for the Crimson Tide, and Walker’s father played basketball for the Tide.
“It’s great opportunity, and they have a great football team, but just because it’s the right place for my brothers doesn’t mean it’s the right place for me,” Jones said of Alabama. “So I’m trying to look at every school equally and not put one above the other automatically and just keep a level head with all of them.”
Walker Jones, 6-3, 234, 4.60, plays for Cordova (Tenn.) Evangelical Christian and has 13 scholarship offers, including ones from Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The latest offer came from Arkansas on Saturday, when he talked to UA recruiting coordinator and running backs coach Tim Horton.
“He Facebooked me and told me he wanted to talk to me about something and to just give him a call sometime,” said Jones, who also said he is planning to visit Fayetteville this summer. “Saturday afternoon I got a chance to call him and we talked for a little while, and he told me he wanted it clear that I had a scholarship there.”
Jones rushed 42 times for 315 yards and 10 touchdowns and had 94 tackles, 1 sack and 4 recovered fumble during his junior season.
“Coach Horton said the offensive coaches want me to play offense and the defensive coaches wanted me to play defense,” said Jones, who reports a 290-pound bench press and 450-pound squat. “That’s definitely something to be decided. He said it will just be a thing when I get there, they’ll make a decision on where to play me.”
LINEMAN EARNS OFFER
Sophomore Natrell Curtis recently became the second offensive lineman from Phoenix Mountain Pointe High School to receive a scholarship offer from Arkansas.
“When I found out that Arkansas had offered me, I was like words can’t even express ... I was so excited and pumped up,” said Curtis, who called Arkansas offensive line coach Chris Klenakis and learned of the offer. “That’s SEC football, so you know it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Earlier this year, the Hogs extended an offer to Mountain Pointe’s Kenny Lacy, who is considered one of the top 2013 prospects in the nation.
Curtis, 6-3, 295, has six other scholarship offers , including ones from Arizona State, Colorado, Vanderbilt and Boise State. He said he and Lacy have talked about visiting the Razorbacks together.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be coming down when he visits,” Curtis said. “We’re going to talk a little bit more about that.”
E-mail Richard Davenport at
rdavenport@arkansasonline.com
Sports, Pages 25 on 05/25/2012