FAYETTEVILLE — Replay any University of Arkansas or Missouri football game this season and one thing will jump out right away on the defensive side of the ball.
No. 31 for the Razorbacks and No. 32 for the Tigers will be around the ball and make a lot of tackles.
Arkansas’ fifth-year senior Grant Morgan is the only player in the country with more than 100 tackles. He leads the nation with 104 stops, an average of 13 per game.
Nick Bolton, a junior who will go through senior day ceremonies Saturday when his Tigers host Arkansas at 11 a.m. Central, has 76 stops in seven games for a 10.9 average that is third in the SEC behind Morgan and Arkansas teammate Bumper Pool (11.7).
Pro Football Focus ranked Bolton and Morgan Nos. 1 and 2 in the SEC on Thursday in “run stops,” with 26 and 25, respectively.
The linebackers have lots in common. They’re both defensive captains and among the 16 semifinalists for the Butkus Award that is given to the top linebacker in the country. Both play with an attitude.
“My mindset on the field is I feel like I’m the baddest SOB on the field, I guess you can say,” Bolton said this week.
Morgan was asked on Tuesday if as a walk-on freshman he could envision being a Butkus semifinalist and leading the country in tackles.
“Yes,” Morgan said. “People are going to be like, ‘Oh, he’s too confident.’ But yes, I’m 100%. You can ask my dad [Matt]. You can ask my wife [Sydnie] now.
“You can ask probably Brooks Ellis when I was a little redshirt freshman, and he was named to the watch list for the Butkus. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to end up winning that one day.’ Or, ‘I’m going to end up being on that thing.’ I hate that it was five years later instead of two, but I definitely could see this.”
Yes, Morgan is feisty. He missed a chunk of time in a Week 2 win at Mississippi State after suffering a left elbow injury. But he returned with a left elbow brace and has worn it ever since.
“He’s slippery,” Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said. “He slips blocks a lot. Plays extremely hard. He’s very prepared when he goes in to a game. He spends a lot of time in the film room and a lot of time with his coach getting prepared for the game. He tries to play the game before it happens.”
Morgan needs that edge. At 5-11, 222 pounds, he’s the shortest and smallest starting middle linebacker in the SEC.
Morgan said his smarts and his tape study are huge assets, and he doesn’t want to be called small.
“I’m really fundamentally good and I’m in the right spot,” he said. “I’m pretty shifty. … I’m a little bit like, I may be a little smaller, but I hate when people say small because I’m literally like a half inch smaller than Nick Bolton.”
SEC West opponents send out prototype middle linebackers like Alabama’s Dylan Moses (6-3, 240), Texas A&M’s Buddy Johnson (6-2, 230), Mississippi State’s Erroll Thompson (6-1, 250) and Auburn’s K.J. Britt (6-0, 243), and the Razorbacks roll with their former walk on. Morgan gives the Hogs a legitimate shot at winning the Brandon Burlsworth Trophy, given to the country’s top player who began as a walk on and named for the former Razorback, for the first time.
“Getting where Grant’s been is not easy, but I’m telling you the guy works so hard,” Pool said. “If you’re in the weight room he’s going to challenge you to do more weight. Even today we were squatting and he looked over at Jonathan Marshall, who is a freak in the weight room, and he’s trying to tell me that he’s squatting faster than him, trying to keep the same weight.
“He just has a chip on his shoulder with everything that he does. And it’s just cool to see it paying off because it’s made me a better player.”
Said Arkansas quarterback Feleipe Franks, “I know just from watching him and competing against him, it’s a guy that, one, is not going to quit on a play ever. That’s why you see him always surrounding the ball.”
The same could be said about Bolton, also slightly undersized at 6-0, 232, whose nine tackles against Vanderbilt on Saturday were all solo stops.
The Frisco, Texas, native is up for multiple national awards and is one of only three juniors to make the list of 20 semifinalists for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award. The core principles for the Witten Award are leadership, courage, integrity and sportsmanship.
Pittman has not passed up one chance over the last two weeks to praise what he’s seen from Bolton.
“Nick Bolton, in my opinion, is as good a linebacker as there is in the SEC,” Pittman said.
First-year Missouri Coach Eli Drinkwitz sees similarities between Bolton and Morgan, with whom he’s very familiar through recruiting and by having former Greenwood coach Rick Jones as a senior analyst on his staff.
“I mean they’re both tremendous linebackers,” Drinkwitz said. “They both make a lot of tackles, and you can tell are leaders of the defense.
“You know Nick, I think I’m so impressed with his life off the football field as I am his life on the football field. He shows up early, works out all the time and has a 3.4 GPA. Just does everything the right way. Has got great manners. His parents have obviously raised him the right way.
“I think the same can be said for Grant. Obviously knew Grant from my time recruiting his brother Drew when I was at Arkansas State. He’s just got great work ethic. You can tell it matters to him.”
Pittman agreed.
“He’s just a very intelligent guy who loves to play,” he said. “Walked on here. Loves to wear the Arkansas across his chest and plays extremely hard. That’s it. He’s smart, plays extremely hard and he’s well prepared.”
Drinkwitz has obviously studied Arkansas defensive film and Morgan intently.
“I think the most impressive thing about Grant, when he makes a tackle he runs back to get lined up on defense,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s very rare to see that. … He’s going to be a tough one to go against.”
SEC head coaches and offensive coordinators have been thinking the same thing about both Bolton and Morgan all season.