Kellen Francis blown away with official visit to Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE — Butler County (Kan.) Community College freshman offensive tackle Kellen Francis was very impressed with his official visit to Arkansas that ended on Tuesday.

Francis, 6-6, 320, was a full qualifier out of high school. He will be eligible to play at his new school this fall.

“It was great, this is my first official visit and I was definitely blown away with the facilities,” Francis said. “Being in the SEC the thing I liked the most was the staff, Coach (Sam) Pittman, Coach (Eric) Mateos. I just really liked how they treated me and how they handled everything.”

Francis said Pittman was very helpful with him about the recruiting process.

“Coach Pittman just giving me just general advice in recruiting and with him being so understanding how quickly this kind of happened for me in the past two weeks,” Francis said. “I just really appreciated that and how he handled that.”

The recruiting heated up for Francis when he posted his highlight tape to X.

“So I put out my spring highlight tape and I didn’t have any offers before that or in high school,” Francis said. “Started out small with Eastern Illinois and then Marshall and Ohio then it’s just gotten crazier and crazier and crazier.

“There’s some other SEC schools trying to get involved. Right now, I’m going on a visit to Illinois later this week. South Carolina has shown interest but have yet to offer.”

He signed with Butler County out of Princeville (Ill.) High School in the Class of 2023. His decision on a college is nearing and admits it will be a rushed one.

“Probably this weekend,” Francis said. “That is the thing Coach Pittman kind of said you’re not going to know the true staff and program you’re going to commit to and he said that’s including Arkansas just with how fast it’s going and people could be not giving me the truth so that’s been kind of the tough thing but I’m just going to rely on my gut But it has been tough with it being so fast 

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