Primary secondary
Pulley, Richardson lead Razorback defense without SEC recognition
FAYETTEVILLE — Three Razorbacks were voted to the three All-Southeastern Conference teams.
It is about what most would anticipate, given the media voted last week during the conference’s football media days in Atlanta projecting Arkansas to finish last in the seven-team West division and 13th out of the 14 teams in the league.
Senior left offensive guard Hjalte Froholdt was voted to the Second Team. Senior safety Santos Ramirez and junior middlelinebacker De’Jon “Scoota” Harris” were both voted to the Third Team.
All three have credentials to be considered. From this view, at least two more from Arkansas’ defense do too.
Junior Hope High School alum McTelvin “Sosa” Agim certainly possesses the big-play ability to be a preseason All-SEC candidate whether he plays at defensive end or defensive
tackle.
Senior cornerback Ryan Pulley of Fort Myers, Fla., was named to four different 2017 preseason All-SEC teams. Playing only part of one game, he suffered a season-ending torn pectoral muscle injury during last season’s opener.
The injury likely put Pulley out of sight and out of mind for the voters in Atlanta. Re-focusing on Pulley’s 2016 would have him back in the All-SEC running even in the college football league which traditionally plays the best defense.
Pulley led Arkansas with 13 pass breakups in 2016, including 10 against Power Five opponents. He had two interceptions, including one returned 50 yards and another for a 25-yard touchdown, and 47 tackles. He also held TCU receiver Taj Williams without a catch.
Arkansas’ new defensive coordinator, John Chavis, has almost 30 years of experience in the SEC coaching defenses at Tennessee, LSU and Texas A&M. He knows an All-SEC player when he sees one.
Spring drills sufficed for Chavis to believe he sees on in Pulley.
“When you look at him, he looks like a good SEC corner,” Chavis said. “Pulley, if he stays healthy, I’ll think he’ll be one of the top corners, one of the top five or six corners in the league which is pretty good. Really good.”
The secondary is led by Ramirez and Pulley and enhanced with Kevin Richardson’s return as a sixth-year senior. Richardson redshirted in 2013 as an instate freshman walk-on from Jacksonville.
Richardson lettered on special teams in 2014 and 2015 as a super substitute. He missed the 2016 campaign after suffering his own pectoral muscle injury during that year’s season opener.
His appeal for a sixth year was granted by the NCAA after spring drills. He returns to the defense after 50 tackles and three interceptions in the 2017 campaign, when he was officially listed as a senior.
Richardson gives the Razorbacks not only their best nickel back from last year but also their most versatile player in the secondary. He has played both cornerback and safety positions.
Richardson is such a respected leader that he drew team-wide applause when former coach Bret Bielema awarded him with a scholarship and was voted as a team captain last year. He represented the Razorbacks at the 2017 media days in Hoover, Ala.
His 2018 status remained in limbo with the appeal, but the NCAA allowed Richardson to practice with the team during the spring. He immediately impressed his new head coach, Chad Morris.
“I believe Kevin, ‘K-Rich,’ came to this last year as a leader,” Morris said last week in Atlanta. “There was a lot of uncertainty through the course of winter. And there for a while, he was unable to work out with us.
“Then, he gets cleared to start working out, and we still didn’t know with certainty until late into spring. And just to watch that young man lead, even though he didn’t know if he was going to be cleared to play or not and still watch him interact with his teammates, you knew this young man was special.”
All the more special now that Morris knows Richardson is on the active fall roster.
“Now, after knowing him like I do and watching him transform from the summer, through the summer and listening to him to speak in a (July 15) team meeting resonated with everybody,” Morris said. “When he speaks, people listen. And he’s got that charisma about him.
“That’s very exciting. He is a leader, and he’s got a great future when his football career is over in leading people, leading men and women, because that’s what he is.”
Richardson is also a savvy, talented football player.
“I’m excited about his experience that he’s bringing back to this defense,” Morris said.