When E’Marion Harris signed with Arkansas as a member of the 2022 recruiting class, he was considered a priority target for Sam Pittman. He was the No. 274 ranked prospect, No. 24 amongst offensive tackles and No. 2 player in Arkansas.
Harris played sparingly throughout his first two seasons in Fayetteville as most young offensive linemen do early on in their college careers. His body and mindset have matured rapidly and now stands a rock solid 6-7, 300 pounds, thanks to strength coach Ben Sowders.
With the absence of Patrick Kutas at guard during fall camp, it has given Harris an opportunity to gain valuable reps with the one’s going into the season. Defensive end Landon Jackson has battled the Little Rock native on several occasions and is impressed with him improvement.
“Yeah, it’s [Harris’] mindset,” Jackson said of Harris’ improvement this offseason. “He came into this year with a different mindset than he previously had. He’s willing and been working. He knows what he wants and he wants to play. He’s tired of not playing.”
“He’s coming in working, working real hard every day. And I mean he’s had a great fall camp. He’s worked his way into running with the ones now. I definitely could see it sticking, because he’s a really talented player with real good hands, real good feet, and he’s putting on the weight. ”
When Harris committed to Arkansas, he was around 370 pounds but played around 340 as a true freshman. He continued to transform his body and was down to 294 pounds during spring ball which might’ve been too light for a SEC offensive lineman.
“He went from being too heavy when he first got here to dropping like, 100 pounds,” Jackson said. He got too light, and now he’s starting to finally put on the weight. I think he’s sitting right at 300. I feel like he’s doing pretty good.”
A similar sentiment was given from starting center and Tennessee transfer Addison Nichols who has played beside Harris at center throughout the past two weeks.