FAYETTEVILLE -- Not every player who starts his Arkansas career as a defensive end will end up there.
Many will have moved to defensive tackle.
Coach Bret Bielema started set a trend he's apt to follow as long as he coaches the Razorbacks with Jeremiah Ledbetter last spring and McTelvin Agim this September.
Rather than take a 280-pound defensive end and turn him into a beefier, 300-pound defensive tackle inside, why not move the big-enough end to 3-technique defensive tackle.
When moved inside, a player with the size and quickness of a defensive end can bedevil offensive guards and centers generally not as athletic as the offensive tackles assigned with containing the perimeter.
The plan that Bielema hatched with defensive coordinator Robb Smith and defensive line coach Rory Segrest could not go much better than with Ledbetter.
For these 3-0 Razorbacks, Ledbetter, now a 6-3, 280-pound tackle, already has exceeded some big-play stats he compiled last season playing all 13 games at defensive end, including starts in the last 12.
Ledbetter was credited with two quarterback sacks last year, his first season with Arkansas after transferring in from Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College.
In three games this season, Ledbetter already has 2.5 sacks, 2 pass breakups and forced a fumble after never separating a back from the ball last season.
Only linebackers Brooks Ellis and Dre Greenlaw, playing the positions in the Arkansas defense where the most tackles are expected to be made, exceed Ledbetter's 17 tackles.
Arkansas hasn't had such defensive tackle production since Bielema inherited now second-year NFL defensive lineman Darius Philon for 2013 and 2014. Philon weighed 280ish inside, and played better than teammates weighing more.
Now, it's the Philon effect, with Ledbetter complementing 271-pound defensive end Deatrich Wise, Arkansas' senior preseason All-American candidate.
"What we're able to get at that position with an athlete like that kind of gives you back when we had Darius there," Bielema said during last Saturday's postgame. "A very athletic, dynamic player that creates a lot of mismatch issues. I think also he's just playing like a man that's a senior that knows what he wants. He doesn't say a lot but his performance speaks for itself."
Philon didn't say much either, but his performance speaks volumes about the current state of the Arkansas D-line.
Other than backup nose guards Bijhon Jackson and Austin Capps, who provide heft found handy on short-yardage situations, Arkansas' defensive linemen range from 290 clear down to Randy Ramsey's 228.
Ramsey plays at what Robb Smith calls "joker" for special situations.
Five-star freshman Agim from Hope is listed the heaviest of the rest, 6-3, 289. Agim is among the quickest who have been converted to tackle, something TCU quarterback Kenny Hill learned after being leveled by Agim's lightning sack.
Seems Agim is another just beginning after experiencing the end.
Sports on 09/19/2016