Part II of the Totally Unnecessary Arkansas Razorback Football Preview
Pain is the price of love.
Last week I covered reasons why I thought the football Razorbacks would be better on the offensive side of the ball. This week I take on a more difficult task, trying to convince myself Arkansas will be better on defense. Tall order.
This is all well and good but we secretly kind of sucked last year on defense and there is no amount of smoke you can blow up my a** to convince me we won’t be worse this year on that side of the ball. I already miss Landon Jackson. And every game will be one long, “Gosh it would be amazing if we could put some pressure on the quarterback somehow”.
Yeah, well you are probably going to spend at least 15 hours watching Arkansas football this year. Shouldn’t you prepare yourself?
I prefer to invest as little as possible in this team. Both emotionally and financially. We are weak on the D-line, lost our most talented players on defense and couldn’t possibly be better on in that phase of the game. Saturdays are going to be one long exercise in misery this fall when we don’t have the ball. Nothing you can say will make me think otherwise.
Let’s start on that much maligned defensive line. We all love Landon Jackson and what he did for the Hogs in his career after coming over from LSU. He will be missed. But it’s not like we don’t have some players with talent. Our best hope at replacing some or most of his production starts with homegrown defensive end Quincy Rhodes, Jr. He jumped off the screen a few times last year. Then went into hibernation for a while, then would jump off the screen again. In his pre-season press conference team leader Fernando Carmona mentioned that Rhodes is beginning to realize how much talent he has and is putting it to use. He was a four-star guy coming out of high school and he is now in his third year with the Hogs.
Why do you keep mentioning when guys were rated as four stars coming out of high school?
AI again. I asked ChatGPT how many four-star guys coming out of high school get drafted by the NFL and the answer was one in four. It goes up to 60 percent for five-star guys.
Great, we have a few players who were seen as having NFL potential coming out of high school.
Actually, we have 31 guys who were four star rated coming out of high school and two more who were five star rated. I counted them up on the Arkansas football website bios.
Really, you need to get a life.
It gets worse. For comparison’s sake I counted up how many four-stars we had in Sam Pittman’s best year, 2021.
Don’t tell me we have more this year.
Yup, we have four more than we did the year we went 9-4 and finished ranked in the top 25. And it should be noted this doesn’t include a number of players who are all conference type players but less highly rated coming out of high school. Taylen Green, Fernando Carmona, Corey Robinson II, Cameron Ball, Caden Kitler and all those guys mentioned last week unless I noted otherwise are not included in the four stars.
I have seen our recruiting classes the last few years and every year we get one or two four-star recruits.
It has been more like four to seven the past few years. Which always puts us right around the 25th highest recruiting class. But most of them transferred out. Typically, after not contributing much to the team.
Outside of tight end Luke Hasz and wide receiver Isaiah Sategna none of them played a significant role on last year’s team. Defensive back Jaylen Braxton and offensive lineman Patrick Kutas looked to be key players but transferred to Ole Miss after the missing most of the season with injuries
Our four stars out of high school haven’t panned out or are still on the team. But we have added a lot of guys who were highly recruited coming out of high school in the transfer portal.
We have been derailed in this discussion. Get back to explaining why the defensive line isn’t going to suck balls this year.
Speaking of balls, let’s start with defensive tackle Cam Ball. The guy is a pre-season All SEC second team selection. An absolute leader on the field and a load for offensive linemen to handle. He had 47 tackles last year while playing with an injured elbow which he had repaired this off season. Pittman says he had offers for a lot of money to transfer but stayed in Fayetteville because he loves playing for the Hogs.
There are two other interior linemen who got some playing time last year and look to be improved. Danny Saili dropped a lot of weight and impressed people in the spring. Ian Geffard is a huge guy (6’5’’ and 387 pounds) and didn’t drop much weight. But Pittman says he makes all his times and is looking forward to him being on the field more this year. We lost Eric Gregory last year on the interior line, but those two plus newcomer David Oke could be better overall and seem to give us more depth on the interior of the line.
Fine. Sounds like we may be even to slightly better on the interior of the line. But we lost our top three edge rushers from last year. Landon Jackson, Nico Davillier and Anton Juncaj.
We have discussed my faith in Rhodes helping to fill Jackson’s production, but strangely for a guy who started all season last year Nico Davillier only had a single sack. Davillier also got a lot of stupid penalties at inopportune times last year. We have a number of guys who could step in that role and exceed his production. Here are the candidates to step into the starting role opposite Rhodes if we play four linemen (which we may not).
#0 Justus Boone - DL | R-Sr | 6-4 | 278
Four-star recruit coming out of high school. Started two games as a redshirt freshman for Florida and looked to be like a top flight player in the making. Blew out his knee and missed a season before coming back last year and played in 11 games, although he didn’t start. As Floridian (I assume) said on a message board, “Really thought he was going to be that dude before the injury. Never looked the same.” Now I feel like it’s possible coming back from an ACL is a two year process and he regains some of the form that made Tom Pettians so excited for him. Maybe not, but there is a chance.
#1 Phillip Lee - DL | R-Sr. | 6-4 | 240
Very strong season at Troy last year, led team with five sacks and had 11 tackles for a loss. The fastest defensive lineman on the team according to fall camp watchers.
#11 Ken Talley - DL | R-Jr | 6-3 | 255
Another four-star recruit coming out of high school who started his career at Penn State before transferring to Michigan State. Didn’t produce much at Michigan State, but clearly there is some underlying talent.
#9 Charlie Collins - DL | So | 6-5 | 255
Stop me if you heard this before, but he was a four-star guy coming out of high school. Played sparingly last year but put on something like 20 pounds in the offseason. Another local kid. May be a year away from really living up to his potential.
If one or two of these guys can exceed expectations, we could have a more formidable pass rush this year and maintain our quality defense against the run.
This feels like your biggest stretch of this article.
Agreed. Let’s move on to what is the most obvious strength on defense.
Linebackers. Both starters return from last year, The Deuces.
Five Star recruit Xavian Sorey, Jr. returns to captain the defense along with fellow returning starter Stephen Dix, Jr. Sorey was 2nd team All-SEC last year and looks to improve on that performance with a better command of the defense in his second year. Ditto for Dix. Who, you guessed it, was a four-star recruit coming out of high school.
But you mentioned that scallywag Steve Sarkisian stole a promising young linebacker from last year’s team, Brad Spence.
Yes he did and I think there is fair argument that this was the biggest portal transfer loss. Spence finished second on the team in sacks last year as a sophomore. Apparently, the big cigars at Texas backed a pickup truck full of money to the young man’s doorstep and convinced him to return to the Lone Star state.
Still linebackers are a strength. Sophomore four-star recruit Bradley Shaw is ensconced as the third linebacker already. A pair of experienced transfers add some much needed depth, Redshirt Senior Trent Whalen and Junior Andrew Harris (four-star recruit). There are a bunch of highly touted younger guys that could add some much-needed depth to this group.
Everyone is quick to point out how much a team improves when a quarterback has spent a year in the system, but doesn’t the same thing go for the QB of the defense? Stephen Dix, Jr. has garnered much praise for his knowledge of the defense and could be an extension of Defensive Co-Ordinator Travis Williams on the field.
You just ran past four thousand words of preview, who do you think will read this?
My little brother? Maybe. This is more for me than anyone else.
Obviously. What about the secondary?
A pair of safeties are coming back from last year that came on strong as the season progressed, Miguel Mitchell and Larry Worth III. Both guys look to pick up where they left off after impressing with their preseason workout numbers. Worth registered a 40.5” vertical leap, while Mitchell finished with the second fastest catapult time, tying Mike Washington at 22.3.
Then there is the enigmatic Jaheim Singletary. The 6’2” cornerback added 14 pounds since last year. He was a five-star rated recruit coming out of high school, so there is a chance this is the season he turns it on. He has shown flashes of potential but hasn’t been the lockdown corner he was expected to be coming out of high school.
Selman Bridges was another four-star kid who the Hogs have high hopes for at cornerback as a sophomore.
Doesn’t sound like an awful start but seems like we need a lot more.
And more we have. We have three players who started for Power Four programs last year, Kani Walker (Oklahoma), Jordan Young (Cincinnati), and Caleb Wooden (Auburn). Oklahoma had a down year last year but was still a topflight defense. Wooden had six starts at free safety for Auburn last season. Young is recovering from some off-season injuries, but he was yet another four star player coming out of high school.
Julian Neal, formerly of Fresno State, was the top-rated cornerback in the portal last spring. Keshawn Davila was the top ranked JUCO cornerback last year.
Maybe we are a little deeper but are we going to be better against the pass this year or not?
The Arkansas Razorbacks ranked 15th out of 16 teams in the SEC for pass defense in the 2024 season, based on defensive passing efficiency metrics. I won’t guarantee we will be better, but I guarantee we won’t be worse.
Fair but you avoided answering the question.
I think we will be better overall if we catch a few breaks (and interceptions).
And what about special teams?
Too early to tell about the kicking game. We are a deeper team talent-wise so I believe that should help special teams and Kam Shanks was a pre-season pick for All-SEC as a punt returner. We made a lot of boneheaded plays on special teams last year. Maybe we do better this year.
Is there anything else which could point to us being better?
Our coaching staff has another year together and is healthy. Our head coach had a bum hip replaced after last season. His press conferences sound pretty good. He has some faith in this team and sounds excited for the season, not like a dead man walking. The position coaches are well-regarded and our coordinators have shown the ability to put together top-flight game plans against quality competition. I also liked our strength and conditioning coach’s last press conference a lot. We brought him over Georgia. He seems like he understands how players need to perform physically to compete and win in the SEC.
Damn you, damn you all to hell. I’m starting to feel better about this season.
Yeah, me too. It surprised me. After the portal swallowed half the team I was pretty down on the season. And I live amongst Texas fans who are convinced they are winning the whole damn thing this year. Just like every year for the past 20 years, but it feels like they might be more justified in their feelings this year.
If you are this optimistic about the season why is everyone else so pessimistic?
The schedule is a beast. Past performance or underperformance. It is possible for all SEC teams to be better than a year ago, but someone has to lose every game. The number of players we lost in the transfer portal looks bad on paper, but not nearly as bad when you go through and look at who contributed on the field last season. Doubts about Taylen Green as topflight quarterback. Despite the fact we might have more talent on the team than in years past, every other SEC team does as well. We have not had the same amount of financial resources as other SEC teams in the past few years. Ole Miss has been spending like a drunken sailor to bring in talent, while Arkansas relies much more on identifying guys who produced at a lower level.
Those seem like pretty valid concerns.
Obviously. I didn’t say I was guaranteeing a trip to the playoffs, I am just saying there are reasons to be optimistic this year.
But I have been burned by Arkansas teams in the past, how can I know I can trust them again not to break my heart?
Oh they will break your heart. I don’t care how good or bad they do, this team is absolutely going to break your heart.
As my therapist said once, “Pain is the price of love”.
On that pessimistic note – Woo Pig Sooie and here is a homeless looking Jeff Tweedy performing the great song, “I am trying to break your heart”.
If you read this far please share this with a friend and subscribe to this Substack.