Lassiter May Be Another Warren Receiver to Play for Hogs
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Don't look now but there may be yet another player from Warren that could be in future plans at Arkansas. Maddox Lassiter, though, has sort of flown under the radar this year as a redshirt freshman learning an all-new position. Sam Pittman has seen him, though.
"We talked about Maddox Lassiter this morning," Pittman said at his Wednesday Zoom with the media. "He’ll be a guy that at least comes in and starts playing some special teams for us."
The Razorbacks, sitting at 2-6, can now look at any of the freshmen in a game situation without burning a redshirt year, which is probably the case with Lassiter, a new 6-3, 238-pound tight end from a Southeast Arkansas town Razorback fans know pretty well. Treylon Burks, Jarius Wright, Chris Gragg and Greg Childs are the ones everybody remembers.
There have been others over the last 60 years, but those three that came in as part of Bobby Petrino's first recruiting class and stuck around all four years leap to mind. Robert Dew was a Lumberjack quarterback who was a defensive back. The son of a doctor in Warren, he was the smartest of all of them on Frank Broyles' great teams in the late 1960's. Lassiter may be as smart, we'll see. Jim Mullins was an offensive lineman on most of those same teams and from there along with others that would turn this thing into an epic too long to read.
"Warren, Arkansas ... where they grown tomatoes and wide receivers," ESPN's Tom Hart said after another big catch by Burks. Apparently nobody told him they also grow a lot of pine trees and sell a lot of timber and wood floors, but it wasn't a history lesson.
"He comes from Warren, Arkansas," Pittman said. "Bo Hembree and those guys, I mean they’re tough down there. He plays from in the state, it means something to him. Bo was very high on him out of high school and called and asked us to look at him. We obviously did. He’s a good player. He’s tough, you know, and very, very, very physical."
Lassiter isn't the only freshman they wanted to redshirt and could likely see the field during these four games just to give them a feel for being in a game.
"We’ve also talked about Malachi Singleton," Pittman said. "Not as a quarterback necessarily right now, but as something. Whether it be helping us on special teams or somewhere because he’s very talented. Big athlete. The rest of the guys, we would have either played them already or don’t have a lot of plans to get them involved at this time."
You'll probably be hearing more about Lassiter. He's got the smarts, is tough. Lassiter also has a rocket arm that is accurate, but he's physical enough to play tight end. One key thing to remember, though, is there will be some references as a "former" Lumberjack ... and that is completely wrong.
Once you're a Lumberjack, you are one for life and simply ran out of eligibility. They also catch a lot of passes as Razorbacks, among many other things ... including winning games.
