A major key to the vast improvement of the Ole Miss defense this season has been a player who should be very familiar to Arkansas football fans.
Joining the Rebels via the transfer portal over the offseason, Chris Paul Jr. – affectionately known as “Pooh” – has made an immediate impact on Lane Kiffin’s squad. That may actually be selling him short.
“He’s awesome and he’s such a good kid, an old-school player,” Kiffin said Wednesday. “I just love how he practices, how much he cares. I remember we had a short field in the LSU (game) and we held them to a field goal and he came off yelling, ‘That’s not enough. They shouldn’t have scored at all.’
“Unfortunately (players like Paul are) kind of rare nowadays. I really do think that players have changed due to a number of factors, including money and how much they actually love the game. So really cool when you find one.”
Paul’s traditional statistics are solid, but don’t necessarily jump off the page. He’s tied for eighth in the SEC with 59 tackles and ranks third among the conference’s linebackers with 8 tackles for loss, plus has 2.5 sacks, 7 quarterback hurries and 3 pass breakups.
Dig a little deeper, though, and you can make an argument that he’s not only one of the best linebackers in the SEC this season, but one of the best in the entire country.
“We’ve always known he can run, and he’s running side-to-side, tackling very well,” Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman said Wednesday. “Looks like one of their leaders on defense and doing exactly what I thought he would do when he went into the portal wherever he went: Be a really fine player for whomever he went to. He was a great player for us and doing the same thing at Ole Miss.”
In fact, he is the best linebacker in the FBS, according to Pro Football Focus, with a 90.9 overall grade on 407 snaps. He also has the top run defense grade (90.1) and coverage grade (90.3) among SEC linebackers.
The last SEC linebacker to post 90-plus grades in both of those categories? Georgia’s Roquan Smith in 2017, when he won the Butkus Award. He went on to be a top-10 pick in the NFL Draft and has been a first- or second-team All-Pro each of the last four seasons.
According to PFF, Paul leads all SEC linebackers with 20 total pressures and ranks second with 37 “stops” (tackles that constitute a “failure” for the offense). He also has a minuscule 3.3% missed tackle rate, which is the second-lowest among 181 FBS linebackers with 350-plus snaps.
“He’s got the stats to back it up,” Arkansas right guard Joshua Braun said. “He’s a gifted player. He’s going to test our mettle. I’m sure he’s going to come into this game with a little extra fire, so we’re just going to have to handle that, see what happens.”
Fans may feel differently, but there doesn’t seem to be any bad blood between Paul and his former Arkansas football teammates. Those who spoke to reporters Tuesday night wished him well and said they were proud of how he’s played this year at Ole Miss.
“He’s having a really great year, and last year when he was here, he was a great teammate for us,” tight end Luke Hasz said. “Just the way he practiced and plays, there’s not many people who do it like him, so it’ll be exciting to go against him this Saturday.”
Paul’s performance so far this season makes him one of the most successful Arkansas football transfers of the transfer portal era. That got us at Best of Arkansas Sports thinking about what an Arkansas All-Portal Departures team would look like, based solely on what the players did at their new schools.
By our count, roughly 110 scholarship players have left the Razorbacks since the transfer portal was created in 2018. Here are our picks for the best of the best at each position, starting with the defense…
Arkansas Football All-Transfer Portal Departure Team
Defense
DT: Jalen Williams – Southern Miss (2021)
DT: Collin Clay – Oklahoma State (2019)
Honorable mention: Anthony Booker (SMU – 2023), Isaiah Nichols (Purdue – 2022)
Our two starters at defensive tackle are each in their third season playing for their new school, so many Arkansas football fans may not remember them.
That’s especially true for Jalen Williams, as he was a JUCO transfer who never saw the field in his lone season with the Razorbacks. He has blossomed at Southern Miss, though. In fact, he earned honorable mention All-Sun Belt honors back in 2022, when he racked up 50 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and two sacks for the Golden Eagles. Although Williams hasn’t been quite that good since then, he has still started 27 games and played more than 1,100 snaps over his career.
A defensive end as a freshman at Arkansas in 2019, Collin Clay moved to defensive tackle and missed two seasons because of injuries before finally becoming a staple up front for Oklahoma State. He’s made 19 starts and appeared in 15 more games, racking up 46 tackles, 8 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, while also earning consistent PFF grades in the 60-62 range.
Two other guys worth mentioning here are Anthony Booker and Isaiah Nichols, one-year transfers at SMU and Purdue, respectively. They have been full-time starters at their new schools, but not particularly productive.
DE: Jordan Domineck – Colorado (2022)
DE: Eric Thomas Jr. – Southern Miss (2022)
Jordan Domineck is probably another name Arkansas football fans don’t remember fondly, as he originally announced his return for a second season with the Razorbacks, only to change his mind and end up at Colorado. He was very productive in his lone season with the Buffaloes, though, finishing with 51 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and 5 sacks.
It was slim pickings for the second defensive end spot and Eric Thomas Jr. made the most sense. Primarily a special teams contributor in three seasons at Arkansas, he has played 209 defensive snaps across 13 games in two seasons at Southern Miss – granted, with limited production. He has just 11 tackles, but that included two sacks.
LB: Chris Paul Jr. – Ole Miss (2023)
LB: Jackson Woodard – UNLV (2022)
Honorable mention: Jaheim Thomas (Wisconsin – 2023), Mani Powell (UNLV – 2023), Jordan Crook (Arizona State – 2023), Zach Zimos (Louisiana Tech – 2022), Andrew Parker (Appalachian State – 2021)
Choosing three linebackers was incredibly difficult because of all the quality options. Ultimately, the top two were obvious and we decided to just make this team with a 4-2-5 nickel defense that features only two linebackers.
For all the reasons laid out at the beginning of this piece, Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. definitely deserves to be on this team. He has been a key piece of Ole Miss’ stout defense.
The other starter is Jackson Woodard, a Little Rock native who began his career as a walk-on at Arkansas before following Barry Odom and Michael Scherer to UNLV. The move has paid massive dividends. He was great last season, earning first-team All-MWC honors with 116 tackles, but he’s been even better this year.
In eight games with the Rebels this season, Woodard has 77 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, 3 sacks, 8 pass breakups and 4 interceptions. Among the 116 FBS linebackers who’ve played at least 400 snaps, he ranks 11th with a 78.8 PFF grade — and he’s done that on 549 snaps, the fourth-most nationally.
As for the other linebackers, Jaheim Thomas is Wisconsin’s leading tackler with 52, Mani Powell has 48 tackles, 8 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks playing alongside Woodard at UNLV, Jordan Crook has a solid 67.2 PFF grade in four starts for Arizona State since missing the start of the season with an injury, Zach Zimos posted an impressive 77.2 PFF grade at Louisiana Tech last year and has also been productive this year. Andrew Parker, meanwhile, racked up 114 tackles in his final season at Appalachian State.
CB: Khari Johnson – Boston College (2022)
CB: Lorando Johnson – Baylor (2023)
NB: Greg Brooks Jr. – LSU (2021)
Honorable mention: Jaylen Lewis (Temple – 2023)
There haven’t been many cornerbacks who left Arkansas and enjoyed success at their next stop, so we once again had to fudge things to make it work.
Khari Johnson, who played corner and safety for the Razorbacks, has primarily been a nickel at Boston College, but we’ve slotted him in at cornerback. In two seasons with the Eagles, he’s started 12 games and played 560 total snaps. PFF gave him a 64.4 grade last year and he has a 67.8 grade so far in 2024. Johnson has two interceptions this season, including a pick-six.
Lorando Johnson, meanwhile, was primarily a nickel who played some cornerback in his lone season at Arkansas, but has primarily been a cornerback who has started a couple games at safety back at Baylor this season. He has six pass breakups and a 68.5 PFF grade on 322 snaps for the Bears.
Another guy who moved around in the secondary, Greg Brooks Jr. was a nickel at Arkansas, but transitioned to safety at LSU. In his first season with the Tigers, he made 66 tackles and two interceptions, earning an impressive 73.0 PFF grade. Unfortunately, Brooks wasn’t able to build upon that season, as a brain tumor ended his career and threatened his life.
Another option at nickel would be Jaylen Lewis, who has started five games and played 334 snaps at Temple this season. He has 37 tackles, 5 pass breakups and 1 interception in eight total games.
S: Jalen Catalon – Texas/UNLV (2022)
S: Simeon Blair – Memphis (2022)
Honorable mention: Joe Foucha (LSU – 2021)
A trio of former Arkansas football captains are up for the two starting safety spots on this team.
The obvious pick is Jalen Catalon, who spent another disappointing, injury-riddled season at Texas before reuniting with Barry Odom at UNLV. Eight games into 2024, it seems as though he’s recaptured some of his 2020 magic.
Pro Football Focus gives him an 80.5 grade on 502 snaps and his traditional statistics are just as impressive: 66 tackles (including a MWC-leading 40 solo), 4 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 3 pass breakups, 4 interceptions (including a pick-six) and 1 forced fumble.
Determining who to put beside Catalon was a bit trickier, but we ultimately went with Simeon Blair because of his production at Memphis in 2023. That may be surprising to those who watched him struggle mightily in the SEC. However, the Pine Bluff native really found his niche in the AAC, racking up 63 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 5 pass breakups and 2 interceptions to earn an impressive 72.0 PFF grade on 869 snaps. That’s a drastic improvement from the 50.8 he posted in his final year at Arkansas.
You could certainly make a case for Joe Foucha, though. His numbers at LSU weren’t quite as impressive – 40 tackles, 4 PBUs, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble and a 64.2 PFF grade on 439 snaps – but he did so in the SEC.
P: Reid Bauer – Memphis (2022)
Honorable mention: George Caratan (JUCO/UConn – 2020), Owen Lawson (Albany – 2023), Patrick Foley (UAB – 2022)
A surprising number of punters have enjoyed success after transferring out of Arkansas – and that doesn’t yet include Max Fletcher, who earned All-SEC honors for the Razorbacks and is now redshirting behind his brother at Cincinnati.
This team is mostly based on what players have done after leaving Fayetteville, but we’re going to let his Hog accolades influence us a little bit with our selection of Reid Bauer. He has a strong case as the most loyal transfer in school history and was vastly underrated during his time at Arkansas.
In his lone season at Memphis, though, Bauer was also very good. He averaged 43.2 yards on 44 punts with 15 pinned inside the 20 and nearly half of them (19, to be exact) fair caught. That was aided by an average 3.85 seconds of hang time and helped him post a 40.1-yard net. Those two marks, which are courtesy PFF, are the best among the transfer punters.
George Caratan averaged 45.1 yards his last year at UConn, while Owen Lawson and Patrick Foley are in the midst of seasons in which they’re averaging 45.0 yards at Albany and 43.1 yards at UAB, respectively. In a revenge game of his own, Foley punted three times for a 39.0-yard average at Razorback Stadium earlier this year.
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