Arkansas football finished the season strong on the field, and it did the same in the classroom as well.
The Razorbacks’ program led the conference with 40 players on the SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll for the fall 2015 semester, all posting a GPA of 3.0 or better.
Alabama was 2nd with 36 and Vanderbilt was 3rd with 33.
Athletic Director Jeff Long made the announcement on the Razorbacks’ official website with a letter to the student body. Long pointed out the tremendous strides the football program has taken to improve its academics.
As you can see in this graphic posted along with Long’s letter, the program has increased its number of fall academic honor roll selections by an average of about four players each year.
The school only had seven back in 2008, but that number has increased steadily every year since.
The 2008 semester was the first under head coach Bobby Petrino, who was fired in the spring of 2012 before John L. Smith’s one-year stint that year.
Obviously, Bret Bielema has continued the school’s academic progress since taking over in 2013. His first fall as coach saw him increase the honor roll selections by six, which was the biggest jump in this period before breaking that mark again with an increase of eight this past fall.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
