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FAYETTEVILLE — The old guys are back, but Arkansas’ linebacker room received an injection of youth before spring ball thanks to a pair of early enrollees.

Joining veterans like Grant Morgan, Bumper Pool and Hayden Henry for the first set of spring practices of the Sam Pittman era are 2021 signees Marco Avant and Chris Paul Jr.

After going through a little bit of a learning curve their first few days on campus back in January, it seems like things are slowing down for them.

“Now you can kind of see like 'OK, this is why we recruited them, this is why they're doing good,’” Morgan said. “They're taking a step forward in every single aspect.”

Although Avant has yet to get on the field, Paul has a couple of practices under his belt already. He even made a nice play to break up a pass by fellow freshman Lucas Coley during a brief team period open to the media Thursday afternoon.

In just a couple months of Arkansas’ offseason program, Paul has also slimmed down quite a bit. He’s just seven pounds lighter than he was last year, but the before and after photo he shared on Twitter shows an even more dramatic transformation.