A year ago, it was Arkansas’ No. 1 ranked prospect Kiandrea Barker
who made waves at Six Star Football events as the standout took home the Futures MVP at TheFINALS — Six Star Football’s premier spring event.
Barker has since drawn numerous offers, including Florida State, Miami, Penn State, Ole Miss and Mississippi State among others.
This year, Cody Taylor
, Arkansas’ No.1 ranked OL prospect in the 2026 class will be attending the Oklahoma Showcase looking to showcase his athleticism, dominant blocking skills and all around abilities that have already landed him numerous D1 offers. He will be joining a list of highly ranked attendees this camp season that includes Iowa State commit Keaton Roskop
(Iowa), and Division I prospects Jayden Woods
(Kansas), Daegon Bryant
(Missouri) among many others who shined at The Midwest Showcase and Kickoff23 Showcase.
Taylor, a 6’3, 280-pound left guard, features a 78 inch wingspan, toughness and the skill level to dominate in pass pro at left guard. He has drawn offers already from Ole Miss, Kentucky, UNLV, Memphis, Toledo, New Mexico State and is only scratching the surface of what is headed his way in the upcoming years.
Six Star Football recently caught up with Taylor and asked him about his offseason and recent recruiting.
☑️SHOWCASE EVENTS Six Star Football will be hosting the Oklahoma Showcase on April 2 in Broken Arrow, offering prospects an opportunity to be seen by coaches and Six Star scouts, compete against elite prospects and earn an invite to TheFINALS All-America Showcase.
Six Star Football — Tell people who haven’t seen you okay about your game, strengths as a player.
Cody – For people who have not seen me, I am a left guard. Known for my strength and speed. I am also known for starting Varsity as a freshman for a 6A 10 time state champ school who traditionally does not start freshman at all. I am more of a pass pro guy than Arun game guy just due to our system but I do pull often. I would say I am just more proficient at pass pro currently. I am still young in terms of recruiting and need to improve a lot on my skill set.
Six Star Football — Tell us about your high school squad.
Cody – The squad at Greenwood is amazing. I moved here from Kansas City at the end of football season 2021. These guys accepted me with open arms and have been very gracious with helping me develop as a player and a freshman. My QB1, Kane Archer, is a guy I will be protecting the next three years and a large part of why I moved here in the first place. We played youth ball together on the Kansas City Outlaws 7th and 8th grade. Being able to practice with and against such well coached and highly talented teammates just makes me a better player overall, Iron sharpens iron for sure! I have developed so much in the short time I have been here and earned the starting spot on the varsity squad. The coaching is amazing, and there is a tradition of winning here that is engrained into you from a young age in Greenwood. Its a winning culture, they hold you accountable, its hard, but through that adversity we are able to be great teammates for each other which leads to success on and off the field!
Six Star Football — Anyone in particular that you have looked up to or patterned your game after as a player?
Cody – I have NFL favorites but Ive never tried to emulate any one player on the field, I’ve always just tried to be the best I could be in the moment for my team. As college recruiting picks up, I understand more and more the things coaches are looking for and I am starting to give more focus to those areas that I need to fix, clean up, and/or just build on. If I had to list some guys who I really like in the NFL, it would be guys like Jason Kelce, Quenton Nelson, Zack Martin, Andrew Whitworth, and Joel Bitonio.
Six Star Football —What are some things you are focused on this off-season?
Cody – This off season I am focused on getting faster, moving smoother, and hand placement. Traditionally in the off season, I am working on getting stronger and putting on weight. We run spring ball in May, then have 7v7 and team camps all through June. We have a conditioning program in late July after dead period that runs for 3 straight weeks so we bulk in the off season until then and lose the excess. By the time season is here, our conditioning is through the roof. Rarely do you see guys getting really tired and slowing down in-season.
Six Star Football — Tell us about your offers? What has the recruiting experience been like for you so far to this point?
Cody – The recruiting has been a very wild experience. You go from being a guy who wants to get noticed so bad to all of a sudden, through hudL highlight film, camps, or media write ups, getting a massive amount of attention. Its gratifying because its a testament to the work you’ve put in up to that point, but a little scary at the same time because you quickly realize how early it is in the process, how much work is ahead, how it kinda puts a target on you for camps. It’s taught me to just focus on what I can control right now and that’s just getting better everyday. It’s given me more of a reason to make academics my number 1 focus. Its opened my mind to things I don’t think I would be considering this early but because I have been blessed with offers, I have learned about NIL and how that will affect me both in college and once it passes in our state for HS students. Its forced me to look harder at what I want to major in, its forced me to set up a 3.5 year high school plan to graduate in December of my Senior year so I can early enroll into a program with the plan of graduating with a Masters and also getting acclimated to that teams offensive system, its also opened my heart to wanting to give back so I am talking with my counselors at school about different projects where we identify a need in our community and find a way to give back by filling that need through donations etc.
Ole Miss was my first offer on Dec 29th via the HC Lane Kiffin. I was told I would have gotten that offer a little earlier but with coaches moving on to other programs and the transfer portal, it took a little longer than expected. The Kentucky offer was a total surprise. It came from Coach Vince Marrow on Dec 31st. OL Coach Jeff Myers from Memphis came by my school and offered me in person on Jan 24th. Coach Kill at New Mexico State offered on Feb 22. On Feb 24th. I got an offer from Brad and Barry Odom at UNLV on Feb 26th. I got the Toledo offer on March 1st from Ricky Ciccone. All of these offers are just proof that I have the most amazing coaches and the most elite and outstanding teammates a guy could ask for. None of my offers or success would be possible without them!
