Chad Morris was hired at Arkansas to bring an explosive, high scoring offense to Fayetteville but if his Razorback program is ever going to develop into an SEC contender, it’s going to take the players up front to make that happen.

While Arkansas did manage to sign a top 25 recruiting class in the 2019 cycle, the Razorbacks will need a few more classes like that to start challenging the teams that currently sit atop the SEC standings. That’s where coaches like Kenny Ingram come in as the new defensive tackles coach in Fayetteville has a long history in the city of Memphis.

Ingram, a Memphis native, played and coached at the high school level in the city before coaching at the University of Memphis. He later went on to work for Gus Malzahn at Arkansas State and Auburn as well as Cincinnati. Under Morris, Arkansas has already attempted to develop a pipeline into the West Tennessee city but adding a coach with Ingram’s ties to Memphis will certainly only help in that regard.

During his first official day on the job, Ingram was asked about being from Memphis and his plans to recruit the city for the Razorbacks. According to the program’s new defensive tackles coach, he’s very proud to hail from Memphis.

“It’s huge for me, it’s huge for me because one, I’m proud of it because it has paid dividends in my life. Who I am, whatever I will be, it’s because of where I come from and I come from Memphis,” Ingram said in a YouTube video uploaded by Whole Hog Sports. “I’m proud, for one, to be able to model, have success as a kid from Memphis, as a person or a young man from Memphis, and I want to be able to share that with other young men. I’m definitely looking forward to being able to do that here.”

Ingram’s history in the city could pay off immediately for the Razorbacks as the current recruiting cycle features some elite players from Memphis. Of Tennessee’s top seven overall prospects according to 247Sports Composite Rankings, four of the players hail from Memphis: receiver Darin Turner (an LSU commit) and linemen Omari Thomas, Marcus Henderson and Chris Morris. All four are considered four-star prospects.

Morris and his offensive staff have a great track record of recruiting receivers but it’s going to take outstanding recruiting jobs from Ingram, defensive coordinator John Chavis and defensive line coach Steve Caldwell to land the Memphis linemen. Ingram was likely promoted off of Auburn’s off-the-field staff in part due to his ties to the area and now it’s time to find out just how well the newest Razorback coach can recruit.