2018 Rivals100 WR Woodard talks Arkansas, Texas offers

2018 Rivals100 wide receiver Al’Vonte Woodard is seeing his recruitment starting to pick back up again in recent weeks. Now at 16 total offers, his most recent have come from Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas.

Woodard had some inherent familiarity with the Longhorns, now led by former Houston head coach Tom Herman, but the way the Razorbacks entered his recruitment was more of a surprise.

“The head coach (direct messaged) me while I was at my indoor track meet at College Station,” he said. “I had to make sure, I had to ask my coach what he was trying to say because that never happened to me before. As soon as he followed me I just DM’d him my highlights and he basically just got straight to it.”

He plans on taking a visit to Texas with several of his teammates from Lamar High School in the coming weeks, but said that he wants to see how the relationship with Arkansas develops before making any such plans in the near future for the Razorbacks.

The same could be said for the Hoosiers, who offered after hiring former Ole Miss wide receivers coach Grant Heard. The Rebels offered Woodard in September.

“Coach Heard, the receivers coach, he came from Ole Miss,” he said. “So I think that he can change the game for him with the receivers position there.”

On Texas

“It’s a huge offer,” he said. “They already said they were coming for me, but they had to see what else they had to offer in the class of 2017. So it wasn’t so much of a surprise for me, but it’s a real big offer.”

“When I get out there, I’m just hoping to get a look at how they’re trying to change the program,” he said. “I’m wanting to see how they’re planning to get themselves into bigger games - bigger bowl games. I expect for them to do the same sort of thing I saw them do at U of H; air it out, run the ball, and just have a balanced offense.”

More on Arkansas

“I actually went to the game they played against TCU,” he said. “They had a pretty balanced offense - they really didn’t throw the ball as much because their run-game was working, so the passing attempts came more on play-action type of stuff.”

Woodard is one of the most well-rounded wide receivers in the 2018 class, and continues to collect offers while keeping a relatively low profile. Top colleges will be making their way to Lamar High School all spring long to see more from Woodard and fellow four-stars Anthony Cook and D’Shawn Jamison. He doesn’t seem overly interested in rushing to a commitment, but more offers are sure to come, so teams will be smart to stay involved with his recruitment.