Tag: Pooh Paul

Drew Sanders, Pooh Paul headline Arkansas’ Players of the Game vs. LSU

The Arkansas defense led by Drew Sanders and Chris “Pooh” Paul highlight Player of the Game selections.

You couldn’t have asked for a better performance from the Arkansas defense on Saturday. The defensive unit finished with seven sacks, eight tackles-for-loss, and forced two turnovers.

Drew Sanders had another great day, finishing with 12 tackles, a sack and tackle for loss. Chris “Pooh” Paul had his best game of the season, ending the day with five tackles, two sacks and two tackles for loss. It’s the first time Paul has received Player of the Game honors in his career. The defense, as a whole, played their best game of the season.

The same can’t be said for the offense, as they were only able to put up 10 points and had another rough outing.

The three Razorbacks Wire staffers – editor E. Wayne and contributors Connor Goodson and Kendall Hilton – were able to put together five deserving Hogs for Player of the Game honors despite the tough loss.

Here’s more details and their complete list of player selections below.

Arkansas’ linebacker depth has lacked for a long time, but Pooh changes things

Arkansas linebacker Christopher “Pooh” Paul is unlike anyone that Hogs have had at the spot in 10 years.

Christopher Paul. Chris Paul. Pooh Paul.

The Arkansas redshirt freshman linebacker may finally be the player the Razorbacks have sought for the last 10 years. He’s so new to the lineup, it’s unclear what he’ll be known as going forward.

And, yes, it’s been that long since Arkansas has had three linebackers who were all in the top five on the team in tackles outside of last year’s magical season of Grant Morgan, Bumper Pool and Hayden Henry. And that only happened because of the extra year of COVID-19 eligibility.

Arkansas has had excellent duos practically every year since. Montrell Speight. Brooks Ellis. Dre Greenlaw. De’Jon Harris. Morgan. Henry. Pool. One always played with the other.

Now, even, it’s Pool and Alabama transfer Drew Sanders. Pool’s eligibility is exhausted after this season. But Sanders has more time and Paul is in only three games into his four year-career on the field. So far, so good, especially last week.

“He got more reps this week than he did the previous week,” coach Sam Pittman. “He’s a good player. Physical guy. He’s playing mistake-free football.”

That’s all Arkansas needs right now. Anything above and beyond mistake-free football, allows the Hogs to give opponents different looks. Arkansas has played several years now almost exclusively with five defensive backs and often with six. Part of that is the nature of the game. But more of it was because of a lack of depth. Paul’s growth – he has 10 tackles in two games, tied for fourth on the team.

“When he gets a lot of his reps is when we’re in the three-linebacker look when Drew’s on the field as a rush, jack, buck, whatever you want to call it. We’re getting more comfortable in that set because of the play of Pooh.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01fc3h383th881vsf1 player_id=none image=https://razorbackswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[listicle id=12379]