Arkansas third year defensive tackle Ian Geffrard is hoping to be a key part of the Hogs' interior defensive line in 2025 after two development years in Fayetteville.
In the transfer portal era, Geffrard went the old-fashioned way and elected to stay in Fayetteville and be loyal to head coach Sam Pittman and defensive line coach Deke Adams. The 6-foot-5, 389-pound native of Mableton, Georgia, has the size and athleticism to be a game-wrecker if everything clicks.
Following a redshirt season in 2023 as a true freshman, Geffrard appeared in 12 of the team's 13 games during the 7-6 campaign that was capped off with a Liberty Bowl win over Texas Tech last year. He finished the season with 13 total tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
Geffrard logged at least 20 snaps on defense in four different games and he tallied 191 total defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. That number should see a big jump this year. He also recorded five total pressure and four quarterback hurries.
“Personally I like the number of snaps that I’m getting,” Geffrard said Tuesday. “From there it’s just about everybody else and seeing if we can get more numbers for everybody else who needs them or what we think will be best to put on the field.”
According to Geffrard, technique has been the focus over the offseason.
“Me and Coach Adams talk a lot about just being violent and knocking back,” Geffrard said.” Just textbook football really and so it’s funny because it’s not supposed to be that hard to just push a guy back. But at the same time it took so many days to get here and realize like, ‘Oh, I can do this better. I can do this better.’ From there it’s just about fine tuning and then from there it’s playing to the best of my ability.”
It's hard to ignore the size of Geffrard. Managing his weight has been a key focus since he arrived on campus in 2024 at 397 pounds. He said he's currently at 382 pounds with the goal of getting down to 370 by the end of spring.
“My body fat percentage I’d say, well, last time I did the scan it was about a month ago and it was like 32 percent body fat,” Geffrard said. “That’s where I’m at right now. But me and (strength coach Ben Sowders) are still working, still working to get it down. My goal is to be about 370 by maybe the end of spring ball. I don’t know about that one but we’ll see. We’ll see what happens when we get to the summer workouts.”
A former three-star prospect from Whitefield Academy (Ga.), Geffrard played both offensive line and defensive line in high school. Some might remember him doing a hand stand during his official visit to Arkansas, which was a brief display of his athletic ability given his size.
“I kind of just winged it, Geffrard said of the hand stand. “I tried a little bit… I knew I could do a cartwheel, so I was like, ‘It’s easy. Just stand still next time. Don’t go all the way.”
The Razorbacks are continuing spring practices in Fayetteville to prepare for the Red-White spring game April 19 at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
