Khmori House is one of the more fascinating pieces in Arkansas’ 2026 picture, and the reason is simple: he doesn’t fit neatly into one box.
The North Carolina transfer arrives in Fayetteville after already carving out a productive college career, and now he’s making his third stop in three years while also changing positions. At 6-foot-1 and 202 pounds, House is being asked to bring his versatility to a defense that needs help on the back end.
His college resume already gives Arkansas plenty to work with. As a sophomore for the Tar Heels, House picked up All-ACC honorable mention after finishing as the team’s tackle leader with 81 stops. He added 45 solo tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble and one interception in 12 starts.
That production came after a recruiting career that made him a coveted name out of Mater Dei High School in California. A former 3-star prospect and the No. 532 overall player in the 2024 class, House signed with Washington after being heavily pursued by William Inge, who is now Tennessee’s linebackers coach. Auburn, Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Colorado, Tennessee, Notre Dame and others were also in the mix.
House also comes from a track family. His mother, Disia Page, ran the 100M hurdles and competed in the long jump for USC.
What makes him especially interesting for Arkansas is the way the staff believes he can move around and affect the game in different spots. House said in April that the position switch made sense to him.
“I always kind of knew that I wasn’t just a linebacker,” House said in April. “I kind of knew I could do multiple things, because out of high school Coach Roberts wanted me to do that at Auburn. And I always remembered that, so when he called me it just started clicking and he started walking me through when I got here.
“[Coaches] walked me through what I was going to do, how I would help the scheme. It all just started lining up and it’s the best for me going forward.”
Arkansas secondary coach Deron Wilson sees the same kind of multi-use defender. In March, he called House “a jack of all trades” and praised how active he is on the field.
“Khmori House is what we consider a jack of all trades,” Wilson said in March. “He is extremely active on the football field.
Great blitzer. He was playing linebacker last year, but when you watch him cover in man-to-man situations, you would have never known he played linebacker.
“He is smart, instinctive. The best way I could describe it is active.
You could see it on film at the last place he was at. When he blitzes, how instinctive and natural he was at using his hands, defeating blocks, whether the ball is in phase or out of phase, what tool he would use.
He has 'it.'”
That kind of versatility is exactly why House draws comparisons to Rudell Crim, the former JUCO cornerback who played multiple roles during Arkansas’ strong run in the SEC. Crim struggled with positioning in 2009, then became a hybrid safety/linebacker in 2010 and helped push the Razorbacks to the Sugar Bowl. That year, he posted 53 tackles, 32 solo stops, 1.5 tackles for loss, five pass breakups and three interceptions.
For Arkansas, the hope is that House can provide that same kind of flexible impact, especially with a defense that finished dead last against the pass a year ago.
Ron Roberts knows the player well. He recruited House at Auburn, kept tabs on him through the portal, and saw the fit long before House arrived in Fayetteville. Roberts also pointed to former Baylor safety Jalen Pitre as the kind of player House could become.
“I recruited Khmori out of high school,” Roberts said earlier this spring. “I thought he was a Star, and then he didn't commit to us at Auburn early. So we ended up grabbing somebody else, and he goes to Washington and plays linebacker.
“I started looking at Florida,” Roberts recalled. “When I went to Florida he was transferring, we had a bunch of them on the roster.
I wasn't looking for one. We talked again.
And then he goes to North Carolina, plays linebacker.”
Roberts said he always believed House could end up in that STAR role, even if the experience wasn’t there yet.
“I wasn't sure, how is this was going to pan out,” Roberts said. “He spent two years of college playing the linebacker, and I originally thought he would have been one heck of a STAR.
I used to talk to him when he was in high school about that. I thought he was Jalen Pitre.
“And I thought [House] is just like [Pitre]. Now, he doesn't have the experience of playing out there, but I think he can be that, and I think he can be physically dominant.
We've got to bank a lot of reps in the film room, in the meeting room, because he doesn't have the years of experience playing the position. But I think he's going to be a draft pick at that position.
I think he does need two years just because of his unfamiliarity with the position, but I think he's gonna be a heck of a football player for us [at Arkansas].”
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