Offseason football camps and showcases like the Senior Bowl have notoriously been breeding grounds for overreactions. Be it at the amateur or professional level, content creators will inevitably use 10-second clips of cone drills to make comprehensive judgements on a player’s career prospects.
Arkansas football fans will remember the infamous video of Landon Jackson’s unique interpretation of how to execute a pop-up dummy drill back in his high school days. It’s safe to say that things have turned out alright for the first-team All-SEC lineman who is set to lead the Razorback defense once again in 2024.
The latest of these overreactions has come in response to a clip from the Senior Bowl practices of former Arkansas offensive lineman Beaux Limmer getting bulldozed by former Texas defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat.
Sweat had a monster showing at the Senior Bowl and was listed as one of the top performers of the week. He is currently listed as the third-best interior defensive line prospect in the class by ESPN and the 63rd-best overall prospect on PFF’s Big Board.
Criticism from Arkansas Football Fans
While T’Vondre Sweat’s impressive rep has gone viral among Longhorn fans and draft pundits, much of the ridicule directed towards Beaux Limmer has, surprisingly, come from Razorback fans:
It appears the fanbase has some leftover sour feelings from the previous football season, and understandably so. The offensive line was arguably the biggest issue for an Arkansas football team that went 4-8 and finished outside the top 100 nationally in total offense.
But Limmer is the wrong target for these pent-up frustrations. He finished the 2023 season with an overall PFF grade of 73.8 – the highest of any offensive lineman on the team. In 2022, he was selected as second-team All-SEC.
These impressive accolades came in the midst of a position change from guard to center following the departure of Ricky Stromberg after the 2022 season. The former Razorback and current Washington Commanders center quickly came to Limmer’s defense when he saw the above criticism, posting “Why are y’all trying to degrade a player on social media who played great for Arkansas for 4 years? I really don’t get it.”
Stromberg is right. Limmer gave his all for Arkansas for his entire career, helping carry the Hogs out of the depths of the Chad Morris era and back to a level of respectability. While his last season in Fayetteville certainly didn’t go to plan on a team level, Limmer still deserves plaudits from the fanbase for his career.
This offseason has seen star players such as KJ Jefferson, Rocket Sanders and Chris Paul Jr. leave their storied careers in Fayetteville behind for greener pastures. All three of these moves garnered criticism from Razorback fans – especially Paul’s decision to swap his Razorback Red for the powder blue of Ole Miss.
Given the widespread outrage over NIL and the transfer portal, it’s hypocritical for fans to ridicule a guy who stayed loyal to Arkansas and put up consistent performances throughout his career.
Beaux Limmer as an NFL Draft Prospect
The most ironic part of this situation is that while T’Vondre Sweat certainly got the better of Beaux Limmer on that particular rep, the former Hog more than held his own on the day. There are multiple clips of Limmer roughing up the big-bodied former Longhorn that have, disappointingly, received considerably less attention from Arkansas football fans.
Limmer’s work during these practices was enough to draw the eyes of multiple NFL Draft analysts, including The Athletic’s Dane Brugler as you can see below.
Limmer is listed as a top-five prospect at his position by ESPN, and PFF tabbed him as their 123rd-ranked overall prospect. The Tyler, Texas, native is very likely to hear his name called in the draft come April.
The soon-to-be-Pro-Hog is the latest unfortunate target of a fanbase disheartened by disappointing football and basketball seasons. But regardless of how the athletic year has gone so far, talking smack about a veteran player who has done nothing wrong is a terrible look.
As we’ve seen before – and especially in the past week – players, coaches and their families can see everything that fans are posting online. Whether it’s praise, criticism or off-the-walls rumors, it all has an impact. These recent events are just the latest in a long history of craziness by one of the most rabid fanbases in America.
Here’s to hoping Dave Van Horn and his highly-touted Diamond Hogs can restore some sanity to Fayetteville with a successful season.
How to Watch 2024 Senior Bowl
Date: Saturday, Feb. 3
Location: Hancock Whitney Stadium (Mobile, Ala.)
Time: Noon CT
TV: NFL Network
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