FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas fans have been waiting on last Saturday's version of Deatrich Wise Jr. for a couple of years.
The 6-5, 272-pound junior, described by Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema as the blueprint for how you draw up a defensive end physically, has worked through injuries and a lack of focus to reach last week's apex in Baton Rouge.
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Deatrich Wise Jr. glance
POSITION Defensive line
CLASS Redshirt junior
HEIGHT/WEIGHT 6-5, 272
AGE 21 (Born July 26, 1994)
HIGH SCHOOL Carrollton Hebron (Texas)
NOTEWORTHY Posted career-high 2.5 sacks last week at LSU. Leads Razorbacks with 4.5 sacks and has 9.5 sacks in 34 career games. … Had a career-high six tackles as a freshman in 2013 against Texas A&M. … Posted a sack and a fumble recovery vs. South Carolina in 2013. … Kinesiology major. … Parents are Deatrich and Sheila Wise. … Father was drafted in ninth round of 1988 NFL Draft (Seahawks) and spent time with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and CFL’s British Columbia Lions.
Wise ripped through and around LSU left tackles Jerald Hawkins and K.J. Malone and harassed quarterback Brandon Harris with a career-high 2 1/2 sacks, a quarterback hurry and a couple of hits just as Harris released the ball that led to harmless incompletions into the grass that were counted as pass breakups.
ESPN play-by-play man Brad Kessler described Harris' mental state after another of Wise's sacks in Arkansas' 31-14 road victory.
"He's going to have nightmares about No. 48 before this thing is over," Kessler said.
"It's always a good feeling with all that hard work that I'm doing ... to get rewarded with the sack," said Wise, who has just gotten back to full health from a mid-season ankle injury. "I feel like in basketball when the big man runs the floor and they give him the ball to make that dunk. It's kind of the same thing, working hard trying to get past like three or four blockers and get the sack is a good feeling."
Arkansas defensive line coach Rory Segrest is hoping Wise and his line mates bring the same ferocity into today's 6 p.m. game against Mississippi State and quarterback Dak Prescott.
"One of the things we emphasized was just finishing last week and guys just making the plays they're in position to make," Segrest said. "You look at previous weeks and we've been all over the quarterbacks, we just haven't finished and gotten there. This past week we just finished those plays we needed to finish."
Arkansas senior DeMarcus Hodge poked some fun at Wise when asked about his performance at LSU.
"He finally got to show some of his dancing moves that he's been wanting to get off all year," Hodge said. "So I think he's finally happy for that. I mean, we literally sat around on Sunday watching it on film. ... He works so hard to get what he got on Saturday.
"It was long time coming. He was due for it, and I'm happy it came in this game."
Wise said the combination of his talent and listening to the coaches helped lead to his big game.
"I just opened my ears more and actually listened to what they were talking about and just applied it more to my game and stuff like that," he said.
"I just wondered why it took us three to years to get to the listening to the coaches aspect," Coach Bret Bielema said on Monday. "Deatrich's awesome. He's come so far. My first year with him, he was running track, he was in a fraternity, he was trying to be a football player. We talked to him about having your plate too full, and it's been baby steps with him.
"He's the same guy every week physically, and once he decides mentally to get to the same point he was on Saturday, good things are going to happen."
Sports on 11/21/2015