FAYETTEVILLE — The highest-rated signee in Arkansas football history has been waking up extra early to relive his mistakes lately.
True freshman defensive end McTelvin “Sosa” Agim has routinely woken up at 6 a.m. during fall camp to make a dash to defensive line coach Rory Segrest’s office for early-morning film study before Segrest heads off to a 7 a.m. coaches meeting.
“He’ll throw some good plays in there like, ‘This is what you should do,’ but we usually watch my mistakes,” Agim said. “I wanted to come in there because we have two weeks of fall camp (left) so I want to get as good as I can before that time.”
The 6-foot-3, 290-pound Texarkana native is competing for playing time on a stacked defensive line recently ranked No. 8 in the nation by ESPN. An early enrollee in January, he arrived on campus as a consensus top-50 recruit nationally. He hasn’t rested on those laurels.
“Sosa has done some really good stuff,” Bret Bielema said.
“Sosa’s come a long way,” Segrest said. “He’s really improving each day.”
Agim has gotten increased reps in fall camp with junior defensive end Tevin Beanum, the projected starter opposite All-SEC senior Deatrich Wise, missing the first two weeks. Agim, junior Karl Roesler and linebacker-turned-end Randy Ramsey have split reps in Beanum’s stead, with Agim increasingly improving his knowledge of the scheme and his role in it.
“Me going out of my gap trying to chase down a running back and he bounce back and goes through the gap that I was supposed to be in, that was hurting me,” Agim said. “But now I’ve learned that, so it’s been a good adjustment.”
Agim is up to 290 after adding 20 pounds since arriving on campus eight months ago. His plan is to lose another five pounds the final two weeks of camp as he looks to retain the athleticism that helped him at one point clock a 4.59 40-yard dash and score nine touchdowns as a high school senior.
In the meantime, he’ll keep getting up early and heading to Segrest’s office to watch his mistakes and focus on the minutiae as he fights to earn a role.
“The biggest thing is just obviously the technique and fundamental part of things,” Segrest said. “Just hands in the right spot, alignment, assignment, finishing trips in terms of our stunts and blitzes. It’s little things here and there.
“He’s making a lot of progress.”