Arkansas Football: 5 reasons the Razorbacks will struggle in 2017

Arkansas football opens the 2017 season this weekend, but here’s why fans shouldn’t get their hopes too high for the Razorbacks this year.

More: 2017 Arkansas football depth chart

The Razorbacks enter the 2017 season right where they left off a year ago, stuck in the middle of the SEC West. This team seems range bound between 6-6 and 8-4 with little room for error.

It could be another mediocre season for the Hogs in 2017. Here are five reasons that Razorback fans ought not get their hopes up too high this year.

5. Replacing the defensive front-seven

Arkansas has to replace way too many pieces of the defensive front seven to contend with the physicality of the SEC. The Razorbacks managed 25 sacks a year ago, tied for eight most in the conference. They haven’t reached the 30 sack plateau as a team since 2012. It would only take 2.5 sacks a game to get there, and that includes a handful of cupcakes along the way.

It’s hard to believe they’re going to surpass their 2017 production with their two leading pass rushers departing from the team after their senior seasons. Jeremiah Ledbetter and Deatrich Wise Jr. anchored the 2016 unit, combining for 9.0 sacks and 98 tackles (13 for a loss).

McTelvin Agim will be asked to step up and fill that void. Offseason reports have not been shy in their praise of the 6-foot-3, 286 pound lineman, but it’s an awful lot to ask for him to be a gamechanger on his own. There are simply too many holes to plug.