Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema talked recruiting on Monday as the 2017 regular season is nearing an end. The Razorbacks need to beat both Mississippi State and Missouri to get to a bowl game.

Noah Jefferson " srcset="https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/552/237/6_7237552.jpg" data-src="https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Assets/552/237/6_7237552.jpg" /> Noah Jefferson will visit Arkansas this weekend.

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Arkansas currently has 11 or 12 verbal commitments depending on how one views Independence (Kan.) Community College 3-star defensive tackle Emmit Gooden. Two various sites on 247Sports ran stories earlier in November saying Gooden had decommitted from the Razorbacks. Gooden had this to say when contacted by Hawgs247 on Sunday, Nov. 5.

"It’s all rumors would rather just let it be until signing day," Gooden said.

The Razorbacks will host four or five official visitors this weekend including some possible help for the defense.

"We would like to get depth," Bielema said. "This is a big weekend for us in recruiting. An 11 o'clock kick, which is actually good for us in recruiting. We have quite a big number of defensive players that'll be in this week that could impact us in a short fashion.

"So it's an exciting weekend for that. What we've realized is, as you get deeper into this thing, when it's just one guy here, it's one guy there, it's a fact overall. It takes place with special teams, but also in the duration of the course of the game. That unfortunately has worn on us way too much."

Bielema had said since the spring Arkansas would likely sign around 15 recruits in the Class of 2018. That number has now grown some.

"I think it's going up a little bit," Bielema said. "Just because I think we'll have some guys that had early graduation. Next Saturday we'll honor the seniors and there's probably as many as two, maybe even more, guys — not significant guys, not guys that are in the starting lineup, but guys that have maybe have been backup players during their career that could possibly get out of here and might explore that option. So the number might increase. I think we could probably get up to a number of maybe 20 guys."

Among the recruits this weekend are Arizona Western Community College defensive tackle Noah Jefferson and offensive tackle Jahmir Johnson along with Pima (Ariz.) Community College safety Aaron Maddox. Jefferson is the younger brother of former Arkansas offensive lineman Cam Jefferson and played his freshman season at USC.

Arkansas' last commitment came from Iowa Western Community College 3-star offensive tackle Noah Banks. He joins a pair of in-state recruits as commitments on the offensive line. Jonesboro 3-star Noah Gatlin and Pulaski Academy 3-star Luke Jones both committed this past summer.

Also on offense, Arkansas has a commitment from Greenwood (Ark.) 4-star quarterback Connor Noland as far as Reserve (La.) Riverside Academy 3-star running back Jeremy Gibson.

On defense, Arkansas has verbal pledges from Homerville (Ga.) Clinch County 3-star defensive end John Mincey and Springdale (Ark.) 3-star defensive end Isaiah Nichols. Lucas (Texas) Lovejoy 4-star linebacker Bumper Pool is Arkansas' highest rated commitment.

In the secondary, the Hogs have commitments from Charleston (Ark.) 3-star Sean Michael-Flanagan, Rockwall-Heath (Texas) 3-star Tanner McCalister and DeSoto (Texas) 4-star BJ Hanspard.

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