Early kickoff helps with recruits ...

While fans may not be too amped up about 11 a.m. starts as Arkansas has this weekend with visiting No. 17 Mississippi State, Razorbacks football coach Bret Bielema loves them when it comes to recruiting.

Bielema, who now believes he will be able to sign up to 20 prospects in the 2018 class, and his program are hosting sev- eral junior college players this weekend.

That group includes Tucson (Ariz.) Pima Community College safety Aaron Maddox (6-2, 192, 4.46), Butler (Kan.) CC linebacker Will Honas (6-2, 225), Coahoma, Miss., Junior college linebacker Davion Taylor (6-0, 215) and the Arizona Western duo of offensive lineman Jahmir Johnson (6-6, 290) and defensive lineman Noah Jefferson (6-6, 320), a former USC player and the younger brother of former Razorback offensive lineman Cameron Jefferson.

Three of those guys could help immediately on a struggling defense that has not had enough depth this season. The Hogs’ defenders have played too many minutes.

“We would like to get depth,” Bielema said. “This is a big weekend for us in recruiting. An 11 o’clock kick is actually good for us in recruiting. We have quite a big number of defensive players that’ll be in this week that could impact us in a short fashion. So it’s an exciting weekend for that.

“What we’ve realized is, as you get deeper into this thing (season), whether it’s just one guy here, it’s one guy there, it’s a fact overall. It takes place with special teams, but also in the duration of the course of the game. That, unfortunately, has worn on us way too much.”

The defensive players visiting this weekend would all enroll in January and thus be able to get through spring practice.

“These kids coming this weekend are players that will be able to play immediately,” Bielema said.

The 11 a.m. kickoff against Mississippi State allows for added time with the recruits and their parents according to Bielema.

“For us in recruiting, it works out for us,” Bielema said. “When you get a kid here on campus, those 11 o’clock games are good because you can get a full day with them on Friday and then after the game on Saturday you’ve got a lot of potential to be with them and their parents.

“Everybody would probably say 2:30 is ideal, but from a logistics and working environment, 11 o’clock is pretty good on time. You get to that 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock (games) and by the time the coaches get done with everything and out the door and we’re a little bit limited. An 11 o’clock game is very functional us.”

Bielema is used to his team playing at 11 a.m., especially at his previous stop at Wisconsin.

“I think it’s been well documented my first year as a head coach we went 12-1 in games at 11 o’clock,” Bielema said. “Every one of them. So, I was indoctrinated early on.

“In the Big Ten they are a little bit more prevalent than they are here. But when we got here, we went for a stretch where we didn’t have one for a long time.

“Really, the only thing different, we bring our team over early on Thursday mornings. It’s a little bit, obviously, of an earlier wakeup call on Saturday. Our meal is still four hours out from kickoff, so we’ll have a meal about 7. This is at 11:10, so we’ll have our pregame meal around that 7:15 range.”

Arkansas has 12 current commitments in the 2018 class and two other spots taken via blue shirts already on campus. Bielema had been expecting to have just 15-18 spot for this class.

“I think it’s going up a little bit,” Bielema said Monday, “just because I think we’ll have some guys that will be early grads. Next Saturday we’ll honor the seniors and there’s probably as many as two, maybe even more, guys — not significant guys, not guys that are in the starting lineup that could possibly get out of here and might explore that option.

“So the number might increase. I think we could probably get up to a number of maybe 20 guys.”

“We have quite a big number of defensive players that’ll be in this week that could impact us in a short fashion. So it’s an exciting weekend for that.”

— Bret Bielema Arkansas head football coach

Jefferson