The final record for the Arkansas Razorbacks said one thing about 2025. The six Razorbacks in Mobile say something very different.
As we at 4 Star Sports have previewed, Arkansas is well represented in Mobile, Alabama. This week at the 2026 Panini Senior Bowl, Arkansas has quarterback Taylen Green, running backMike Washington Jr., offensive lineman Fernando Carmona, defensive linemanCameron Ball, linebacker Xavian Sorey Jr., and cornerback Julian Neal sharing the same all‑star locker room. That total ties the Hogs with Texas Tech for the second‑most representatives of any program, trailing only Texas A&M’s seven. For a fan base that just lived through a frustrating fall, that number lands like a reminder: the roster was never as empty as the standings made it look.
Look at the positions. It’s not a random collection; it’s a spine. Green is the prototype of a traits quarterback who makes NFL scouts lean forward – big frame, live arm, movement skills that stress a defense horizontally and vertically. He put together multiple 300‑yard passing games in Fayetteville and became the rare quarterback who could threaten a defense with both his arm and his legs in the same afternoon. That dual-threat profile is why some evaluators already consider him a legitimate Day 2 possibility if this week goes well.
Washington brings the kind of frame and temperament NFL backfields covet. He bullied his way to a 1,000‑yard season in the SEC, creating yards after contact behind an offensive line that was still gelling for stretches of the year. In Mobile, when you strip out opponent logos and just measure who finishes runs, his game travels. You see the low pads, the extra yard after first contact, the ability to stay on the field in all situations. Those things play on Sundays.
Carmona is the quiet glue. The veteran tackle stacked nearly 50 career starts between San Jose State and Arkansas and logged north of 700 snaps this past fall. He helped the Hogs put up more than 5,000 yards of total offense and multiple 500‑yard outings, often without getting his name called unless something went wrong. He’s long, experienced, and comfortable in different spots up front – the classic lineman who doesn’t wow social media but finds his way into a lineup and stays there for a decade if things break right.
On defense, Ball arrives in Mobile as a 50‑game vet with production to match: triple‑digit tackles, double‑digit tackles for loss, pressures, and forced fumbles across his career. His game is built on leverage, effort, and reliability more than flash, which is exactly what front offices want from an interior piece. Sorey led Arkansas in tackles and filled every column you care about – stops behind the line, sacks, a pick, pass breakups, a forced fumble – the kind of modern off‑ball linebacker who can survive in space and still show up in the box. Neal rounds out the group as the long outside corner who can live in man coverage and compete at the catch point, a profile that always seems to climb boards once scouts see it for a full week, rep after rep, in one‑on‑ones.
That’s not the talent profile of a roster circling the drain. That’s the skeleton of a genuine SEC contender that simply didn’t cash in enough Saturdays.
If all of this sounds familiar in Fayetteville, it’s because Arkansas has been here before. When Houston Nutt took over in 1998, he inherited a program coming off consecutive 4–7 seasons and a fan base that had mostly written the Hogs off. Underneath that record sat players like Brandon Burlsworth, Anthony Lucas, David Barrett, Kenoy Kennedy, and others who were better than the standings suggested. Nutt’s first team flipped the script with a 9–3 finish and a 6–2 mark in league play, sharing the SEC West and muscling back into the national conversation almost overnight.
The Senior Bowl quickly became the national confirmation. Those early Nutt teams started sending waves of Hogs to Mobile – including Lucas, Barrett, Kennedy, and more – tying, then resetting, what Arkansas fans thought was possible for all‑star representation. Burlsworth became the face of that era’s truth: a former walk-on turned All‑American guard, beloved by NFL offensive line coaches and scouts alike. He was the clearest evidence that a “rebuilding” roster had been misread by everyone outside the building. The week in Mobile just made it undeniable.
Fast‑forward to 2026, change the sponsor name on the field, and the function of the Senior Bowl hasn’t shifted at all. Arkansas entered this cycle with a deep watch list and now lands six players on the official invite ledger, one of the biggest footprints of any program in this year’s game. Since the early 1950s, Razorbacks have found their way to Mobile regardless of who was on the headset or how the previous season finished. It has become a quiet tradition: even when the Hogs are limping through a schedule, they’re still sending pros to the Senior Bowl.
This class fits squarely into that history. Green’s tools stand out in a quarterback group that doesn’t have a surefire top‑five lock. Washington’s power and versatility, Neal’s perimeter competitiveness, and the sturdy, proven tape of Ball, Sorey, and Carmona give Arkansas a full‑field presence across position groups in practice. When the helmets are logo‑less, and the scripts are the same for everyone, the eye sees what the record sometimes hides.
That’s the connective tissue between the early Nutt years and now. Arkansas can absolutely have a bad year. It can losea one‑score game, misfire on third down, or ride out a transition season that tests every bit of patience in the state. What it rarely does is run out of players. Nutt walked into a locker room the rest of the league had written off and found an SEC West champion hiding in plain sight. This staff, whatever questions it still has to answer, just sent six Hogs to a game that routinely launches NFL careers.
So when you flip on the Senior Bowl and see that Razorback logo scattered across the American squad, remember the bigger picture. From Burlsworth and Lucas to Green and Washington, from the old Legion Field days to the modern stage in Mobile, this game has been the place where Arkansas proves, again and again, that the roster has more in it than the record shows. Even in a bad season, the Hogs don’t run out of talent. They just need the right stage to remind everyone.
