FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Razorback defensive back room continues to get better each year under defensive coordinator Barry Odom. This year is no different.
Odom and his crew have a solid group of safeties and it starts with Jalen Catalon and Simeon Blair. Both Catalon and Blair have been primarily running as the two first team safeties in fall camp, and Odom said their connection is strong.
"You look at (Blair) and Catalon, the way that they talk on the field and communicate… They have reached an elite level on what that’s supposed to look like," Odom said Thursday.
Catalon's season was cut short by an injury in the Ole Miss game last season, but he still enters this season as one of the top safeties in the SEC.
"He helps us — he makes us go, really," Blair said. "And he always comes to work every single day. He keeps the same mindset, so even if you're tired, you know you can lean on him and he's gonna bring some energy. That just pumps us up to make us keep going."
The story for Blair is a little bit different. The former walk-on has earned his stripes, and as a redshirt senior he seems primed to take the next step alongside Catalon on the back end.
Last season, Blair started seven games and recorded 38 tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack and four pass breakups. Odom said Blair is a valuable player to the Hogs.
"He plays with a chip on his shoulder," Odom said. "And the great thing about Blair is he brings it every single day. You know exactly what you’re going to get. I know at 2:15 when I see him, I know exactly what I’m going to get. He’s the same dude every day, and he brings such terrific value to our program."
Blair said when he finally started playing consistently on defense in 2020, he noticed how Catalon would be very knowledgable in the film room and Blair said he wanted to be more like Catalon because of that.
"That’s my dog," Blair said. "He helped me a lot. He’s a very smart player. I remember my first year during that Covid year when I really first started playing defense for real, we would come in meetings and the coach just put up a formation on the board and he would already know what the play was going to be. And then I would see that and I would be like, okay I definitely need to step up my game. So that just made me want to really be like him. That made me want to learn the game more."
Now, both Catalon and Blair are able to help with leadership in a Razorback defensive back room that has a lot of cross-trained players. Blair said he thinks the Hogs have five or six guys who could fill the roll of safety or nickel back on the field.
"I feel like we have a lot of depth, and just the fact, like we talked about earlier how Jayden (Johnson) was playing nickel and (Myles Slusher) was playing safety, I feel like we've cross-trained so many guys that guys can play nickel, guys can play either safety on the field," Blair said.
Catalon, Blair and the rest of the Razorback secondary will hit the field Friday morning for practice ahead of Saturday's closed scrimmage, which Odom said will be a big factor in deciding who will be playing a lot on the defense this season.
"There’s a difference between performing well in a scrimmage and then performing well on Sept. 3 in front of 78,000 people," Odom said. "A lot of discussions have got to take place between now and the end of Saturday."
