Arkansas Football: 3 breakout candidates for 2021 season

Sam Pittman’s first season in Fayetteville was a solid one and while a casual fan might say a 3-7 season is a failure, winning three SEC games was a huge success for Arkansas football in 2020.

In fact, the Razorbacks hadn’t won an SEC game in a couple of years before Pittman and the fact that they won three in 2020 and nearly beat Auburn, LSU, and Missouri showed just how close this team was to finishing 6-4.

Arkansas is going to be a problem in the SEC for years to come if Pittman continues to recruit at a high level and land breakout stars in the transfer portal (hello, Feleipe Franks).

Let’s take a look at which Razorbacks could break out this season, a-la Franks in 2020.

Eric Gregory wasn’t a Sam Pittman recruit, but the sophomore defensive end excelled in the first year of the new head coach.

In fact, after redshirting in 2019 after being a highly-rated three-star recruit, Gregory recorded 27 total tackles, three tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and an interception in 2020. He played in just eight games with the Razorbacks but still excelled and looked like a budding star.

Gregory also has great size at 6-4 and 283 pounds and will have a major impact on the defensive line for the upcoming season. He’s one of two returning starters along that defensive line and he is also the returning sack leader from last season. He only had 2.5 sacks in his first year as a starter so I see that number increasing to the 5-7 range and his total tackles topping 40.

Expect a big season from Gregory on a defense that can only improve from last year’s No. 106 overall ranking in terms of yards allowed per game.