During the 2022 season, the Arkansas football team broke the program record with an SEC-best 42 total sacks.
Of those sacks, 17 came from a pair of players now residing in the state of Colorado. Linebacker Drew Sanders recorded a team-best 9.5 sacks and he was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. Defensive end Jordan Domineck led all defensive linemen with 7.5 sacks and he has since transferred to Colorado.
Three returners accounted for 12.5 sacks as defensive end Zach Williams recorded 4.5, linebacker Chris "Pooh" Paul Jr. had four and defensive end Landon Jackson totaled three. Five other returning Hogs recorded sacks in 2022, but none of them had more than two.
With four transfer additions on the defensive line and two at linebacker, the faces rushing the passer are going to be different at times, but the returning contributors will get their fair share of opportunities.
HawgBeat made the argument for three different players who could lead the Razorbacks in sacks during the 2023 season...
Landon Jackson
A former four-star recruit and transfer from LSU, Jackson might have finally pieced things together ahead of his junior year. Following a strong spring that featured his name being brought up a lot, Jackson has as good a chance as any to lead the team in sacks this fall.
As a freshman at LSU in 2021, Jackson played in five games exclusively on special teams before suffering a torn ACL. The Texarkana, Texas, native elected to hit the transfer portal and he landed in Fayetteville.
The 6-foot-7, 269-pound defensive end played in 13 games and started seven during his first year as a Razorback. Jackson tallied 23 total tackles, three sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss. He became a regular with the starters later in the year and that's when he said he began to gain confidence.
"I feel like once the bowl game came around I got a lot more confident in my abilities, in the knee, in the playbook," Jackson said April 6. "(Arkansas was) just getting a more confident football player all around, and I feel like that’s allowing me to finally play like I know I can play."
Jackson was hard to stop for the Arkansas offensive line in the spring and Pittman said Jackson looks much better than he did when he initially arrived at Arkansas.
"Now he’s bigger, confident, long," Pittman said April 4. "He’s a problem, now. A good problem. He’s on our team, but he’s a problem if you’re an offensive lineman. It’s just his speed and his size right now that…I mean, he’s been hard to block."
- Mason Choate, HawgBeat Publisher
Chris Paul Jr.
He’s waited his turn, and his time has come. Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. is poised for a breakout season for Arkansas in 2023.
In a backup role at linebacker last year, Paul showed signs he was ready to take the reins in the linebacker room. He finished the 2022 season as a Second-Team Freshman All-American according to The Athletic and College Football News, and was a Freshman All-SEC selection.
The 6-foot-1, 230-pound defender appeared in every game for the Razorbacks, and tallied 62 tackles along with eight tackles for loss, four sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
His eight tackles for loss ranked third on the team and his four sacks ranked fourth on the team. The players from last year's team who had more sacks than he did were Drew Sanders (9.5), Jordan Domineck (7.5) and Zach Williams (4.5).
Sanders and Domineck are both in Colorado now, with Sanders a part of the Denver Broncos and Domineck transferring to play for Coach Prime and the Buffaloes. Heading into 2023, Paul is primed to become a leader for the linebackers.
"I feel like my leadership role is going to take a huge step this year," Paul said during spring practice last March. "I feel like I’m that guy, one of the older guys on the defense. From the two practices that we’ve had, the defense has had a lot of energy, flying around to the ball and things like that. Coach Williams has done a great job of establishing those rules and things like that and I feel extra confident in my defense."
Paul is the longest-tenured scholarship linebacker on the team and saw a lot of playing time last season as Bumper Pool battled injuries all year long. That experience will prove to be paramount to him having a breakout season and leading the team in sacks as Sanders did a year ago.
- Daniel Fair, Football Recruiting Analyst
Trajan Jeffcoat
With Drew Sanders and Jordan Domineck gone, defensive coordinator Travis Williams will be looking for someone to step up for the Arkansas defense. The portal may have provided that player with Missouri transfer Trajan Jeffcoat.
In four seasons with Missouri, Jeffcoat accumulated 84 total tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks. His best season was in the pandemic-altered 2020 season, when he put up 23 tackles, six tackles for loss and six sacks against an all-SEC schedule to earn himself a First Team All-SEC selection by the Associated Press and the league’s coaches.
Although Jeffcoat’s 2021 and 2022 seasons were not as productive, he’s still shown an ability to disrupt the quarterback and should thrive in what is supposed to be an aggressive defense under Williams.
Williams led the UCF defense from 2021-2022, with the sack leaders in each season being Big Kat Bryant and Tre’mon Morris-Brash, respectively. Bryant played on the interior and exterior of the defensive line while Morris-Brash played exclusively as a defensive end, the same position as Jeffcoat.
The 6-foot-4, 280-pound Columbia, South Carolina, native is built to dominate as a defensive end and is my pick to lead Arkansas in sacks.
- Riley McFerran, Recruiting Contributor
