FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas head football coach Chad Morris and members of his staff previously stated their intent to land a graduate transfer quarterback.
The Razorbacks ended up with a quarterback very familiar to the coaches. Former SMU quarterback Ben Hicks announced his decision on Twitter Monday afternoon.
"Looking forward to playing my final season of college football in Fayetteville!" Hicks posted on Twitter, tagging the @RazorbackFB account. "Excited to get to work!"
Hicks (6-2, 220) is the Mustangs' all-time leader in passing yards with 9,081 and passing touchdowns with 71. He will enroll at Arkansas this week and be able to go through offseason conditioning and spring practice with the Razorbacks.
Morris was 14-22 in three seasons at SMU before accepting the head coach position at Arkansas in December 2017. Hicks redshirted Morris' first season in 2015 and started 24 games over the next two seasons as a freshman and sophomore.
Hicks, who reportedly also considered Louisville and Georgia Tech, will compete for the starting job vacated by rising redshirt senior Ty Storey, of Charleston. Hicks has one year of eligibility remaining and will be eligible to play immediately as a graduate transfer.
Morris confirmed Storey's intent to transfer last week before Hicks visited campus in Fayetteville over the weekend. Storey has not yet announced his transfer destination.
Rising redshirt junior Cole Kelley began the 2018 season as the starter, but he backed up Storey and freshman Connor Noland over the final nine games and played mostly in short yardage situations. Kelley has since transferred to Southeastern Louisiana.
Noland was one of three remaining scholarship quarterbacks remaining on campus. He started one game last season and played in four games total. Noland and John Stephen Jones were able to redshirt last season.
Daulton Hyatt, out of Etowah High School in Alabama, will be a redshirt sophomore. K.J. Jefferson, out of North Panola High School in Mississippi, signed with Arkansas in December as the team's only quarterback commitment in the class of 2019.
Arkansas quarterbacks completed 54.6 percent of their passes in Morris' first season. The team finished with just 2,307 passing yards and 17 passing touchdowns against 18 interceptions.
Hicks threw for 3,569 yards and 33 touchdowns with 12 interceptions and a 58.5 completion percentage in 2017 under Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, who joined Morris in Fayetteville. Hicks' numbers dropped last season under first-year head coach Sonny Dykes. He finished with 2,582 yards and 19 touchdowns with seven interceptions and a 55.9 completion percentage.
The Mustangs were 7-5 in the regular season in 2017 when Morris left to take over for Bret Bielema with the Razorbacks. SMU fell one game short of bowl eligibility in 2018 at 5-7.
Sports on 01/15/2019