re: Recruiting hotbed areas in your school's state

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Arkansas has literally no "hotbed" in the state whatsoever. The closest we came was the group of Petrino recruits (3 total) from Warren. Football in central Arkansas is damn-near nonexistent at this point, and NWA hasn't caught up enough population-wise to make a typical hotbed. Our hotbeds are in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and occasionally Missouri/random northern states/California.

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Let's be honest. NWA is mostly white. It's not that small to use low population as an excuse.

Central Arkansas has the players, but high school sports are a mess. If we're talking football, you still find players at NLR, Conway and a few from private schools and other surrounding municipalities. Many of the players at these schools are transfers from other Central Arkansas schools.

Warren, El Dorado and Pine Bluff, especially, have produced a lot of talent. Pine Bluff is often overlooked for the amount of talent it produces.

Apparently I have WAY too much spare time. Here's the complete roster minus a kid from Honolulu:


and here are the Texas kids:


As you'd expect, there's a high concentration from the (in order) Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio areas, plus Deloss Dodds' sliver of east Texas

Batesville, Jackson, Madison, Meridian.

IBMs?

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Very rarely if ever has many major prospects. Name the last good college football player from Dothan?

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The Dothan Antelope. Don't ever forget The Dothan Antelope.

For Texas A&M, it's East Texas, Greater Houston area and New Orleans, actually A&M cherry picks whoever they want from the state of Louisiana.

And. Here. We. Go

Arkansas produces a decent amount of talent in state considering its overall population, but most years it doesn't produce enough in state recruits to say... challenge for the SEC West or what have you.

Like Redeye said we have to hit the states around us for extra players. Leaving the SWC, while the right move for the viability of all our sports programs, was a heavy blow to the Razorbacks ability to recruit Texas.

We do, however, have an odd tendency for a high school, and not necessarily one of the larger ones in state, to suddenly produce a bumper crop of athletes every now and then. Our coaching staff has to maintain good relations with everyone in state as a result.

You might be cherry picking the one good player from a school or you might hit the motherload like Petrino stumbled into. You have to keep working to get everyone that you can from in state.

Well, we built a fence around Memphis a few years back.

Looking at MSU's roster of Mississippi kids

Rural South Mississippi: 10
Metro Jackson outside Jackson: 8
The Delta: 7
Jackson Proper: 6
Golden Triangle: 6
Pine Belt: 5
Northeast (Tupelo and Surrounding): 4
Mississippi Gulf Coast: 4
East Central (Meridian and surrounding): 3
Vicksburg and Surrounding: 3
DeSoto County: 3

For Ole Miss
Delta: 10
Northeast: 8
Jackson Proper: 6
Jackson Metro: 4
Pine Belt: 4
South: 4
Golden Triangle: 3
East Central: 2
DeSoto County: 1
Southwest MS: 1
Coast: 1

Combined:

The Delta (includes South Panola): 17
Rural South Mississippi: 14
Jackson Proper: 12
Metro Jackson (Madison, Brandon, Clinton): 12
Northeast Mississippi (Tupelo, Oxford): 12
Golden Triangle (Starkville, West Point): 9
Pine Belt (Hattiesburg Area): 9
Gulf Coast: 5
East Central (Meridian and Surrounding): 5
Southwest (Vicksburg and Surrounding): 4
DeSoto County: 4