photo credit: Craven Whitlow
With the 2025 Arkansas football season only two weeks away, the depth chart is coming more and more into focus, but a few questions remain on both sides of the ball.
That includes who will play alongside fifth-year senior Cam Ball as the Razorbacks’ second defensive tackle. They have a couple of reserves from last year in Ian Geffrard and Danny Saili back, but the position figured to be a major point of emphasis in Arkansas’ portal efforts this offseason.
However, the staff ultimately added just one transfer at the position: David Oke out of Abilene Christian.
Despite coming from the FCS ranks, the rising senior was a consensus high three-star portal prospect who was coveted by several Power Four programs before committing to Arkansas, which had a leg up on the other schools thanks to his unique hobby.
Given the Razorbacks’ lack of experience outside of Ball, it was easy to pencil in Oke as a starter upon his commitment, but he missed about half of spring ball with an injury and hasn’t generated much conversation when healthy.
The praise from head coach Sam Pittman, defensive coordinator Travis Williams and defensive line coach Deke Adams has mostly centered on Saili and his vast improvement from last season. They have also mentioned the need to count on Geffrard considering he’s entering his third year in the program.
As such, Saili and Geffrard have rotated with the first unit during the limited team periods open to reporters in fall camp, while Oke has mostly worked with the second-team defense.
When asked specifically about the transfer, Adams seemed to indicate that he’s struggling to adjust to the effort necessary at this level compared to where he came from.
“He’s a really, really good talent,” Adams said. “He’s physical, he’s twitchy, he’s explosive. We talk all the time about straining to the very end, meaning finish getting off that block, that one extra step that I have to take to get to the quarterback, or that one more flipping my hips to be able to give me a chance to get to the QB. Strain to the very end.”
For the Razorbacks’ defensive coordinator, it sounds like it’s a matter of learning the playbook.
“He’s played a lot of ball, so (we) just need him to continue to pick up the system, continue to grow and for Coach Adams to continue to get him understanding the system,” Williams said. “But he’s a guy who brings a lot of experience for us.”
Regardless of the reason, Oke exited fall camp – which concluded Friday, with classes starting next week – as the apparent No. 4 defensive tackle on the team.
That’s what makes his No. 4 ranking on another list so surprising.
NFL Draft Expert High on David Oke
For the last 15 years, Dane Brugler has spent the majority of his days on the phone with NFL scouts and executives or watching film, evaluating draft-eligible prospects year round.
Writing for The Athletic since 2018, his favorite part of the job is learning about the journeys of the players and discovering those who are flying under the radar.
David Oke checked both of those boxes.
Originally from Nigeria, he moved to the U.S. with his family seven years ago in search of better medical care for his younger brother, who had cerebral palsy. It wasn’t until he was in 10th grade that Oke, then living in Houston, started playing football.
Brugler said he’s blown away by how good Oke has gotten in such little time. He had known about the talented defensive tackle at Abilene Christian since last year thanks to conversations with some NFL scouts, but it wasn’t until after he transferred to Arkansas that he had a chance to really dig in on his film.
The first thing that jumped out at Brugler was how well he moved, which made him easy to identify without knowing his jersey number, and he liked it even more after discovering he came to college as a 250-pound defensive end. Oke kept his athleticism even at 290 pounds last year and now he’s listed at 314 pounds at Arkansas.
“He’s just a guy that’s rocked up (and) doesn’t have a lot of bad weight on him,” Brugler told Best of Arkansas Sports. “You could tell he works at developing his body in all the good ways.”
He also pointed out Oke’s versatility, as the defensive tackle routinely lined up in different gaps across the line, indicates that he’s a future NFL player.
In fact, Brugler is so high on Oke that he’s tabbed him the fourth-best draft-eligible defensive tackle in the country and assigned him a second-round grade.
David Oke (#98) transferred from Abilene Christian to Arkansas this offseason, and he has a chance to be a star in 2025. Impressive movement skills for his size (6016v, 312v) and plays with natural leverage.
Already well liked in NFL circles. Gives me Javon Hargrave vibes. pic.twitter.com/e0ZDrVBvl1
— Ryan Roberts (@RiseNDraft) July 13, 2025
That’s a surprising ranking for a player who doesn’t even look like he’ll be a starter when the Aug. 30 opener against Alabama A&M rolls around.
However, Dane Brugler acknowledged that part of the ranking is based on projection, which is pretty common for players coming out of the FCS ranks. That’s especially true for a guy like David Oke, who’s still developing his body and figuring things out. Plus he’ll be just 21 years old at the time of next April’s draft.
“When you talk about potential, projections are educated guesswork and it doesn’t always play out the way you thought, but this is what NFL scouts do,” Brugler said. “They don’t look at the stats necessarily. They don’t care about anything other than just the (physical) traits and what translates to the next level and the type of skillset that they’re looking for.”
Brugler can’t wait to see how he fares in the SEC.
“He’ll be surrounded with better talent where teams won’t be able to focus necessarily just on him and double-team him,” Brugler said. “So I’m very interested to see what his development looks like this year, the way he introduces himself to SEC blockers and the way the defensive coaching staff plans to use him.”
The other thing working in Oke’s favor is that Brugler believes, after scouting 80 or so players at the position, that this is an “average or slightly below average” crop of defensive tackles for the 2026 NFL Draft.
While Clemson’s Peter Woods may be the best player in the entire draft and Florida’s Caleb Banks is the clear-cut top senior defensive tackle, there are questions aplenty of virtually everyone else.
For example, Penn State’s Zane Durant is an elite pass rusher, but must improve in the run game. Darrell Jackson Jr. at Florida State has all of the talent and traits you want, but is far too inconsistent. For Oke, it’s a matter of how well his game translates to the SEC.
Brugler admitted that may take time because it is such a big jump from the FCS and said he wouldn’t be surprised if Oke fails to make an immediate impact as he seems to be trending toward — but he’s not ready to jump off the bandwagon just yet.
“I’m very eager to track that development from what he put on film in Abilene Christian to the guy he looks like in Week 1 and then by Halloween, by Thanksgiving, how does it look different?” Brugler said.Â
For a guy like this, the scouting report is “definitely more of a process.”
Brugler’s Take on Rohan Jones
David Oke is one of two FCS transfers the Razorbacks are expected to lean on this season. The other is tight end Rohan Jones from reigning national runner-up Montana State. Unlike his defensive counterpart, he seems to be in line for a starting job so far.
BoAS also asked Dane Brugler for his opinion of the Canadian because he checked in at No. 18 on The Athletic’s list of top senior tight ends. Here is his full response, which we’ve edited for clarity:
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