Tag: Grant Morgan

The Legend of Grant Morgan only grows with Burlsworth Trophy win

Grant Morgan became the first Arkansas player to win the Burlsworth Trophy, named after a former Arkansas offensive lineman.

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Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan became the first Razorbacks player to win the Burlsworth Award, named after former Arkansas offensive lineman Brandon Burlsworth and given to the top player in college football who began his career as a walk-on.

Morgan, a sixth-year senior captain from Greenwood, Arkansas, won the award over Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett and Troy linebacker Carlton Martial during a ceremony at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

Morgan finished the regular season with 96 tackles, including seven for-loss with three pass break-ups a half-sack and six quarterback hurries. When Morgan plays with Arkansas in Outback Bowl against Penn State on January 1, it will be his 58th career game with the Razorbacks and likely his 22nd start.

The brother of former Arkansas wide receiver could also win two other awards this winter. He’s one of 13 finalists for the Campbell Trophy and one of 20 semifinalists for the Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award. The former will be presented Tuesday and the latter in February.

Predicting Arkansas’ All-SEC players: Nine Hogs should make cut

Arkansas should land nine players on the All-SEC teams this year. And KJ Jefferson better be one of them.

Arkansas’ best regular season in a decade has come to a close. And while the rest of the SEC finishes Saturday and then Alabama and Georgia conclude the fall in the SEC Championship, we figured it was time to start preparing to fill our All-SEC lists.

The Razorbacks should have no shortage of players represented on the all-conference teams. A couple of guys are locks. Another would be – Jalen Catalon – if not for a season-ending injury.

But we know, too, that the big dogs of the league tend to land a majority of the players. Alabama alone had eight first-team selections by the league’s media during SEC Media Days. Arkansas had a total of five players across the four teams voted on during that week.

Both things should change after the season. Here are our projections of Arkansas’ All-SEC players this year.

Arkansas-Missouri: 3 Predictions, 1 Crazy

Few think Missouri will beat Arkansas on Friday. Instead, our staff at Razorbacks Wire are predicting these things, instead.

It’s almost time. Arkansas’ most successful season, subjectively, since 2011 can instead become Arkansas’ most successful season, objectively since 2011 with a win over Missouri on Friday afternoon.

Every Arkansas football gameday, you will find Razorbacks Wire editor E. Wayne and contributor Derek Oxford giving three picks on events that will take place in that day’s game. One of those picks has to be a little bit off the wall, something that could happen, but it’d be wild if it did.

Picking Arkansas to complete a pass to Treylon Burks, for example, is a bad prediction for these purposes. Picking Burks to have eight catches and 100 yards, that’s better. Also picking, say, a penalty for targeting, another nice one. It’s unlikely, but has potential.

Want to join? You’re probably better at it than we are. Make your picks in the comments section on the Razorbacks Wire at your favorite social media site.

Without further ado, welcome to 3 Predictions, 1 Crazy, Arkansas-Missouri.

Hogs linebacker Grant Morgan a semifinalist for Burlsworth Trophy

Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan named a semifinalists for award going to nation’s best former walk-on.

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Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan was announced Tuesday as a semifinalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, an award given to the best college football player in the nation who started his career as a walk-on.

Morgan, a super-senior from Greenwood, is third on the team with 67 tackles, a mark that’s also good to tie for 14th in the SEC. Morgan also has five tackles for-loss, three pass break-ups and three quarterback hurries.

Morgan, whose brother Drew was an All-SEC wide receiver at Arkansas from 2013-16 and also started his career with the Razorbacks without a scholarship, led the nation with 111 tackles in 2020. Earlier this year the younger Morgan brother was named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, also known as the Academic Heisman.

The Burlsworth Trophy was named after former Arkansas offensive lineman Brandon Burlsworth, a player who started his career without a Division I scholarship offer but started three years for the Razorbacks on the line and ended his final season as an All-American.

The winner of the award will be announced December 6.

Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan named finalist for Academic Heisman Trophy

Arkansas’ team captain Grant Morgan is an All-SEC linebacker and member of the Academic Honor Roll.

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Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan was named one of 13 finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy on Wednesday, otherwise known as college football’s Academic Heisman Trophy.

The award is given to the best football scholar-athlete for his combined academic and football success and his leadership example. Each of the 13 finalists will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, as well.

Schools were limited to one nominee each. The submitted player must be a senior or graduate in his final year of eligibility, have a grade-point average of at least 3.2, be a starter or top reserve and have demonstrated leadership and citizenship outside the classroom and off the field.

Morgan is third on the team with 60 tackles and led Arkansas with 111 last year, ultimately leading the nation in tackles per game. He became the second Arkansas defensive player in the last decade to earn Associated Press and Coaches All-SEC honors after the season.

Morgan is a graduate, having earned his bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with a concentration in exercise science in 2019. He received his master’s in operations management in 2020. He’s also a four-team Academic Honor Roll member in the SEC.

The winner of the award will be announced December 7.

Auburn vs Arkansas: Where the Tigers have an advantage

Where does Auburn have an advantage over Arkansas?

Auburn’s matchup with Arkansas begins what is a brutal back half of the season for the Tigers.

The Tigers are current road dogs (ESPN’s FPI gives Arkansas a 60% chance to win) with current aspirations of making the SEC title game.

I don’t want to jinx it, but we’ve seen this movie before. A two-loss Auburn team, with only one loss in their conference? A brutal bottom half of the schedule? A vulnerable Alabama team that has to face Auburn at the end of the season?

I honestly don’t think it will happen again, for two reasons. One, Auburn isn’t as good as they were in 2017 in the trenches. Two, Bo Nix. If they’re going to make a push though, it starts with this Arkansas game.

Where does Auburn have an advantage? Here’s every position group matchup.

3 Reasons Arkansas can pull the upset of Ole Miss

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin isn’t exactly known for his teams showing up in big games. Arkansas can take advantage.

The polls say Arkansas beating Ole Miss on Saturday in Oxford wouldn’t be an upset. Las Vegas, ESPN, most prognosticators say differently.

Ole Miss was projected to be a Top-25, or close to it, team in 2021. The Rebels even vultured a pick in the preseason to win the SEC West. Arkansas, on the other hand, wasn’t sniffing the top of the division. The Hogs won three games last year with all three coming in the SEC, anyway.

But this season the Razorbacks find themselves at 4-1 with upset wins (well, they were upsets at the time) over Texas and Texas A&M. A loss to Georgia was Arkansas’ first loss last week. Ole Miss was supposed to beat every team it has but were outmatched by Alabama last week.

Still, the numbers suggest Ole Miss beats Arkansas in Oxford on Saturday.

Here are three reasons the Hogs can avoid such a fate.

Special teams continue to haunt Arkansas in loss to Bulldogs

Arkansas knew it would be an uphill battle on Saturday, but special teams miscues didn’t help matters.

Georgia had already taken a 14-0 lead on Saturday when disaster struck for Arkansas.

Reid Bauer was lined up in his own end zone to punt it away when it was blocked by Georgia’s Dan Jackson and Zamir White (who doubles as a special teams player) recovered it in the end zone to make it 21-0.

At that point, the Razorbacks were probably done even though the first quarter still wasn’t over.

Eventually Arkansas was able to put together a drive and got into field goal range, but sure-footed Cameron Little missed his first field goal wide right from 37 yards out.

Little’s counterpart, Georgia kicker Jack Podlesny, made all four of his extra points on Saturday, which happens to be part of a record for consecutive extra points made at 356 and counting. It started in 2014.

Senior linebacker Grant Morgan said following the game that he knew he and his teammates would have to play a perfect game in order to beat Georgia.

“We didn’t win in any of the three phases, special teams, offense or defense, and it showed,” Morgan said.

Morgan led the team with 12 tackles while Bumper Pool was right behind him with 11 stops.

Arkansas did not record a sack and only had four tackles for loss, as the Bulldogs were committed to a game plan of a steady diet of run plays.

Backup quarterback Stetson Bennett IV only attempted 11 passes and completed 7 of them for 72 yards.

The Razorbacks won’t have any time to feel sorry for themselves, as they travel to Oxford, Miss. next week to take on Ole Miss, who was dominated by Alabama on Saturday.

Picking off Matt Corral six times is probably an unlikely scenario this time around, as well as stopping the Rebels on fourth-and-goal situations twice.

Kickoff will be at 11 a.m. on ESPN, just like the Georgia game.

Rocket Sanders a unanimous Player of the Game choice vs Georgia

Arkansas freshman running back Rocket Sanders is a unanimous selection for Razorbacks Wire staff for Player of the Game.

Well, it happens.

Arkansas’ hot start to the 2021 season is officially over. The 11th-ranked Razorbacks saw what elite college football was all about on Saturday when No. 2 Georgia had an easy go of the Hogs, 37-0.

From the word go, the Bulldogs were the better team, scoring on their first two drives, blocking a punt for a score and basically making Arkansas look like a Chad Morris team.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t some bright spots Saturday.

…

Maybe.

We did our best to find them in our Players of the Game. Read editor E. Wayne’s and contributors John Nabors’ and Derek Oxford’s reasons for their selections as such below. And be sure to stay with Razorbacks Wire all season long for the best Arkansas coverage.

Arkansas-Texas: Who has the edge at each position?

Arkansas and Texas are a lot closer in talent than a lot of people outside those two states realize. Here’s how they stack up, position by position.

To outsiders, the Arkansas-Texas game may seem like a walkover for the Longhorns.

Tip: it isn’t.

Texas is favored by 5½ points, per Tipico, and there is no doubt the Longhorns have been the better team for the past decade, 20 years, 30 years … well, for most their history. But Arkansas is an SEC team — an SEC football team that appears better than it’s been in five years, too.

So, how exactly do these teams match up on the field? Here’s a position-by-position breakdown of each.