FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – The question has been the same since signing day for the Arkansas defense: Do they have enough talent and depth at linebacker to be relevant in the SEC?
The position has been thin for several seasons and then the addition of just one signee in February saw the grumblings get even louder. But for the players returning outside of preseason All-SEC selection Scoota Harris, they say the concern is misplaced.
“I 100 percent don’t think it’s an issue at all,” linebacker Grant Morgan said. “We’re not worried about it. If you were to ask anybody on our team, I think a lot of people are talking about it but I don’t think anybody on our team think linebacker is an issue.”
Outside of Harris and sophomore Bumper Pool, the Razorbacks don’t have a ton of in-game experience at the second level.
“I’ve heard. I’ve read. I’ve seen everything they and it’s fine,” linebacker Hayden Henry added. “We have what it takes to be a dynamic group in the SEC. I know people probably don’t understand that. We have the guys that can play on Sundays. We have guys that can ball out on Saturdays and we’re going to do that.”
“We definitely got the talent,” linebacker Giovanni LaFrance said. “We all can play. I always see articles and stuff but we don’t pay that no mind. I feel like we definitely have the depth.”
Harris led the SEC in tackles in 2018 but the next four guys in the rotation combined to make just 80 stops and none made more than 29.
“We have five or six guys that can play,” Morgan said. “The way Bumper and Scoota and I and then Hayden is coming along, we’re all playing really good right now and I think we’re just going to keep getting better.”
“We’ve got a great group of guys in there,” linebacker Bumper Pool said. “We’re just young so people don’t know about us but I feel like we have the depth to go a whole season and we’ve got a good group of linebackers.”