LB Harris will be missed by new staff

FAYETTEVILLE — New Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman and his new defensive staff knew they would miss two Razorbacks they couldn’t coach.

Even on miserable defenses for miserable 2018 and 2019 Razorbacks teams consecutively 2-10, 2-10 overall and 0-8, 0-8 in the SEC, 2019 seniors De’Jon “Scoota” Harris and McTelvin “Sosa” Agim stood out in the league.

Now they’ve got a chance to stand out in the NFL. Third-round draft choice defensive lineman Agim remains on the Denver Broncos roster.

Two-time All-SEC linebacker and NFL free agent signee Harris remains on the New England Patriots going into today’s final preseason cutdown.

No offense to Sosa, but Pittman and defensive coordinator Barry Odom most miss not inheriting Scoota.

Emerging junior college transfer Julius Coates and returning healthy after out for 2019 injured Dorian Gerald are the defensive ends and at defensive tackle adding graduate transfer Xavier Kelly from Clemson, and the developments of senior 3-year letterman Jonathan Marshall and third-year sophomore Isaiah Nichols have Pittman and Odom visualizing a SEC caliber defensive line.

The coaches entered Friday’s scrimmage hoping they could envision from the linebackers what they haven’t seen.

“We haven’t really had a guy going, ‘This is my job, and I’m going to take it from you,” Pittman said of the two linebacker spots immediately post the Aug. 28 scrimmage. “That position right there is still a wide-open position of who’s going to be our starters.”

Pittman said Aug. 28 he hoped scrimmage film would confirm better than seen from the naked eye. Apparently it didn’t.

“I think that’s a position that we have to become a more physical group,” Pittman said Tuesday. “We have to go make plays. That’s what linebackers are supposed to do. We can’t run into an offensive lineman and not shed him and make a play. That’s something that we did not do Friday. We’re certainly working on it.”

It’s not for lack of effort. Junior 2-year letterman Bumper Pool, last year’s weakside linebacker and team’s second-leading tackler to Harris, and versatile seniors Grant Morgan and Hayden Henry have played good football for bad teams.

Morgan has been a top sub for Harris in the middle and Pool at weakside.

Henry totals 34 games for three years.

Senior Deon Edwards also logs three letters.

Graduate transfer linebacker Levi Draper lettered last season playing 14 games mostly on special teams for the Big 12 champion Oklahoma Sooners.

Third-year sophomore Andrew Parker (6-2, 235) drew offseason raves among the great body transformations under new strength coach Jamil Walker.

Odom appreciates they’re all in a hunt. He just wishes a couple would lead the hunt.

“That’s a big question mark going into this next scrimmage,” Odom said Wednesday. “We need a couple of guys to separate themselves. There’s a number of guys that are in the mix. We’ve got to get them game ready. That’s on all of us defensively as a staff to get that done.”