Highly recruited 4-star offensive lineman Zaden Krempin received VIP treatment when he visited Arkansas for the Red-White spring game on Saturday.
Much of interest in Arkansas was because of his previous relationship with offensive line coach Eric Mateos at Baylor.
Krempin and his family was immediately escorted to coach Sam Pittman’s office when they arrived.
“When we got there, we went straight to Coach Pittman’s office,” Krempin said. “I was very impressed with Coach Pittman and Coach Mateos. I love that Coach Pittman works with the O-line during the individual sessions every practice. He’s truly an O-line guy to the bone. They made me feel very welcome and want me to be a Razorback.”
Krempin, 6-5, 265, of Prosper, Texas, has 26 scholarship offers from Arkansas, Oklahoma, LSU, Southern Cal, Ole Miss, Auburn, Florida State, Tennessee, Oregon, Penn State and others.
Rivals rates him a 4-star recruit, the No. 13 offensive tackle and the No. 102 overall prospect in the nation for the 2026 class.
A 1-on-1 tour from Mateos also showed he was a priority of the Razorbacks.
“Coach Mateos took us on a tour of the entire campus after the game,” said Krempin, who has a 3.9 grade point average. “The campus is beautiful and the student-athlete center was very cool. I also met with the strength and conditioning coach and loved the weight room. Overall today was awesome. Arkansas was already high on my list but after today I’d say they moved up.”
When asked what else caught his attention, Krempin said the Arkansas coaches stood out.
“I guess the biggest thing is the coaches,” he said. “The time I got to spend with coach Pittman privately was awesome. I’ve been to a lot of schools and they are all nice and have the pretty bells and whistles but the coaches and culture is what makes all the difference.”