CONWAY, Ark.- The University of Central Arkansas announced its 2026 football signing class, welcoming 42 new student-athletes who have joined or will soon join the program in the Summer.

The class includes 33 mid-year enrollees. Of those already on campus, 27 are transfers and six are high school signees. The group addresses every position on the field, adding depth across the roster with nine offensive linemen, six defensive linemen, eight defensive backs, four tight ends, four wide receivers, four quarterbacks, three running backs, and one player each at punter, kicker, long snapper, and linebacker.

UCA's 2026 signing class represents a national recruiting footprint, with Arkansas leading the way with 12 signees. Twelve other states are represented as well, including Texas (5), Tennessee (5), Mississippi (5), California (3), North Carolina (2), Louisiana (2), Missouri (2), Oklahoma (2), Arizona (1), Georgia (1), Kansas (1), and Pennsylvania (1).

Head Coach Nathan Brown shared his thoughts on the signing class.

"We are very excited about this group. There was a lot of time and energy over the past couple of months that was spent on not only retaining top talent on our roster but also recruiting talented student athletes into our program to push us back to where we want to be. We signed players at all positions with a good mix of young recruited high school talent with more experienced transfer talent as well."

Brown also spoke about the challenges of recruiting in today's college football environment and the collaborative effort required across campus.

"With the landscape of college football there is new strategy and organization within your program to make all this work. We had a limited amount of time with transfers and had to act quickly in not only recruiting them but also getting them into school. Our team at the University did an amazing job getting these men evaluated, applied, and admitted in a short amount of time. I can't thank President Davis and our Board of Trustees enough for the commitment they have made to push our program to the next level. Matt Whiting is navigating a fragile landscape in college athletics and has been a great leader for us as coaches to be able to do our job at a high level. Sometimes you just think of the coaches and the recruiting aspect but it took a lot of time and energy with Justin Witcher, Jesse Taylor, Scott Breeze, our Admissions office, and our Registrar to make all this work."

Looking ahead to the future, Brown emphasized the mindset of the group and what comes next.

"We look forward to seeing what this group can do for our future. We look really good on paper and have added a lot of length and size that it takes to win. It is now time to get to work and gel as a team. You can look good on paper but the hard work will tell the story. We have a hungry group that is motivated and looking forward to the challenging 2026 schedule ahead of us."

You can get the details about each individual recruit by clicking here.