The 19th in a series featuring newcomers to the University of Arkansas football team.
FAYETTEVILLE – Even when Blayne Toll was little, he was big.
Joe Besancon, going into his 21st season on the staff at Hazen High School and 13th season as head coach, began getting scouting reports on Toll when he was in elementary school.
“Some of my coaches are the elementary P.E. teachers, so they’re interacting with those kids every day,” Besancon said. “One of them said, ‘You’ve got a monster coming,’ when Blayne was in the second grade.
“I’m not exactly sure how big Blayne was back then, but at that age he already was just a lot bigger than the other kids.”
When Besancon and his wife were house-hunting a year later, he saw Toll for the first time.
Tabatha and George Toll, Blayne’s parents, were selling their house, and the Besancons were among the people who stopped by for a tour.
The Besancons didn’t buy the Toll house, but Joe Besancon was sold on Blayne.
“I’d heard about Blayne, but that’s the first time I’d ever laid eyes on him,” Besancon said. “I was thinking to myself, ‘Wow, that is a really big ’ol third-grader.’
“Then you naturally kept watching him develop as he got older. I couldn’t wait for the chance to get to coach him.”
Toll developed into such a good high school player he drew more than 20 major college scholarship offers. He signed with the University of Arkansas, where Toll is a true freshman defensive end and listed at 6-5 and 234 pounds.
Because Toll skipped the eighth grade, he’ll be 17 years old this entire season. He won’t turn 18 until Dec. 11.
“He’s obviously just a freak when you look at him,” Arkansas quarterback Feleipe Franks said in the spring. “I mean, you’re like, ‘Oh, you’re this young? OK, that’s weird.’ ”
Toll, who played quarterback, tight end and defensive end at Hazen, was listed as an “athlete” during much of the recruiting process.
Arkansas listed him as a defensive end on signing day.
The coaches decided to move Toll to tight end in the spring, but he has moved back to defensive end for preseason practice.
“Blayne is an extremely gifted athlete,” Razorbacks offensive coordinator Kendal Briles said. “He’s a big, strong, fast-twitch player who loves playing football.
“He’s more than willing to do anything for our football team, which I can’t tell you how much we appreciate as coaches, and his family being involved as well with that.
“I feel really good about Blayne and what his role’s going to be this year as a freshman. I don’t think there’s any doubt that he’ll play somewhere for our football team, and he’ll help our football team because of his work ethic and the way that he trains.”
Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom was glad to get Toll back on his side of the ball.
“He has a great motor, and I think has a huge upside on what he’s going to become as a player,” Odom said. “He’s hungry to be good. He’s picked up what we’re trying to do schematically at really a high speed. He has got a lot of skills. Just natural skills.”
Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman, an NAIA first-team All-American defensive end at Pittsburg (Kan.) State, said he talked Toll into wearing No. 96.
“I told him he had big shoes to fill if he wore 96, and he took it,” Pittman said with a laugh as he downplayed his own success as a player. “We were just trying to maybe kind of make it loose a little bit because we wanted him to go back over to defense.
“To be honest with you, that’s where he wanted to be. But he was so unselfish, he went to tight end.”
Odom said it was impressive how willing Toll was to move without objections.
“It speaks volumes about the type of person and really the character and care for Arkansas, with what Blayne has done,” Odom said. “When Coach Pittman approached him about moving over to help us out at tight end, he said, ‘I’ll do whatever I can for this team and this program,’ which is awesome.
“You don’t find that much, especially with freshmen. And he did it, and he went and dove in and was doing a great job on that side of the ball from everything that I’d heard.
“But then it looked like he could really have a chance to go and help us in some situations on the defensive side. They got some things cleared up offensively and allowed that to happen. He has done, in what we’ve able to see, a tremendous job.”
Toll, rated a four-star recruit by ESPN, committed to Arkansas on June 29, 2019. He picked the Razorbacks over Oklahoma and Tennessee. Other scholarship offers for Toll included LSU, Auburn, Ole Miss, Baylor, Nebraska, TCU, Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Memphis.
After Chad Morris was fired and replaced by Pittman, Toll stayed committed to the Razorbacks.
Pittman was a longtime offensive line coach, including the previous seven seasons at Arkansas, then Georgia. He also has coached at Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, North Carolina and Kansas among other stops.
“He loves Arkansas, he knows Arkansas, and he’s been in the Power 5 for a long time,” Toll said of Pittman when he signed. “And he knows what it takes to win in Power 5 conferences.”
Besancon said he’s not surprised about Toll’s unselfish attitude at Arkansas with regards to switching positions.
“That’s the way Blayne is,” Besancon said. “Whatever he can do to help you win and have an opportunity to be on that football field, he’s going to do it.
“He’s such a hard-working kid. He’s a pleasure to coach, because he’s going to do everything that you ask him to do.”
Besancon said he has no doubt Toll will excel at Arkansas, but that he’s got a big adjustment to make.
“It’s going to be a major learning curve for him, going from the smallest high school classification in the state to Power 5 college football,” Besancon said. “It’s a big jump.
“The speed of the game is probably going to be the biggest challenge for him, in my opinion. That’s the way it is for any freshman. They were the big fish in a little pond. Now they’re in the Power 5, where everybody can play.”
Toll is used to adjusting quickly to a move up in competition.
After playing on the ninth-grade team for Hazen, he was added to the varsity roster for the playoffs and scored on a 6-yard bootleg run in a 53-8 loss to Hampton.
“Hampton tore us up, but Blayne held his own,” Besancon said. “I mean, he scored his first high school touchdown when he was 13 years old.”
Toll began attracting attention from major colleges in the spring of 2018 with his strong performance at The Opening Regional in Dallas, a showcase for high school recruits. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.88 seconds, had a 31.3-inch vertical jump and a power ball throw of 41 feet. Toll’s overall rating of 102.15 was the second best at the event for defensive linemen.
With Toll still about four months shy of his 18th birthday, Besancon said he could continue to grown taller and definitely will get bigger and stronger.
“He doesn’t look 17, but that’s all he is,” Besancon said. “He looks like he’s about 21 or 22. When college coaches
Blayne Toll at a glance
CLASS Freshman
POSITION Defensive end
HEIGHT/WEIGHT 6-5, 234 pounds
AGE 17 (Born Dec. 11, 2002)
HOMETOWN Hazen
NOTEWORTHY A 4-star recruit by ESPN and the No. 20 strong-side DE and No. 268 player in the country. … Practicing at defensive end after being moved to tight end in the spring. … Played quarterback, tight end and defensive end at Hazen. … As a senior, Toll had 60 tackles, including 35 for lost yards, and 16 sacks. He also had 2 forced fumbles and 2 recovered fumbles with 1 returned for a touchdown. He rushed for 178 yards and 5 touchdowns, and had 203 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. … As a junior, he had 75 tackles, including 18 for lost yardage and 12.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and an interception. On offense, he had 756 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns; 601 passing yards and 6 touchdowns; and 5 receptions for 101 yards and 1 touchdown. … Chose Arkansas over offers from Oklahoma, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn and others. … Son of Tabatha and George Toll.
