The Arkansas Razorbacks return essentially the entire wide receiver room from last season despite the group having a new position coach in Ronnie Fouch. While Andrew Armstrong leads the unit after tallying 764 yards and five touchdowns in 2023, senior Tyrone Broden has put together quite the offseason and has the potential to take his game and the Hog offense to a new level.
Broden caught 36 passes for 596 yards and five touchdowns during the 2021 season at Bowling Green. He followed that up with 506 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns in 2022, but his production did not translate to his first season in Fayetteville.
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After arriving in the summer, Broden took a while to find his footing during a 2023 season that saw the Razorbacks finish 4-8 and relieve offensive coordinator Dan Enos of his duties mid-season. Broden finished with 15 receptions for 109 yards and three touchdowns on the year, but the Detroit native looked like a completely different player during spring practice.
At 6-foot-7, and with one of the highest top-end speeds on the team at a recorded 22.49 miles per hour, it’s not hard to see the vision of the kind of playmaker Broden can be in the right situation. He’s shown plenty of flashes in his career, like his game-winning touchdown reception for the Hogs against Florida last season, but receivers coach Ronnie Fouch has seen the promise on a much more consistent basis this offseason.
“The sky is the limit for him,” Fouch said. “The best thing about him is how hard he works at learning the offense. He’s a leader and just picks up the offense very quickly. His position, he has to move around a lot in the alignments of inside, outside, maybe No. 3 in the slot.
“He’s been so impressive with just his work ethic and his footwork for his size and his hands, obviously. With his height, he can high-point the ball way up there above the backboard. He’s done a great job of working. This is a different year for him. We’re asking him to start outside, and he’s taken that leadership and been working harder. This is going to be a different year for him.”
Having a full offseason with the coaching staff, rather than a few weeks before the season, is a big part of Broden’s step forward. As he prepares to enter his final collegiate season, Fouch feels the opportunity to be a real focal point in a Bobby Petrino offense has helped motivate Broden to be at his best in every aspect.
“He loves the offense and the ability to move inside and outside and utilize his strengths,” Fouch said. “We throw the ball, like to spread people out, mixing running the ball downhill. His ability to block, make plays in the slot, make plays outside has motivated him to learn the offense as fast as he can and master the system so he can be out there in every situation and get the ball as much as he can.”
Fellow wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa couldn’t quite put his finger on why Broden’s talent didn’t lead to as much production last season, but he and the rest of the receivers have not been surprised by his clear emergence this offseason.
“I feel like, for the most part, it’s kind of been there the whole time,” TeSlaa said. “He just really needed the opportunity. I don’t know what it was. But we’ve always known Tyrone is the dude. To be able to go watch him make plays now, it’s good to see that.”