Razorback senior wide-receiver De'Vion Warren (#10) from Monroe, LA makes a long first down run Saturday against Missouri at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR.
Nate Allen
FAYETTEVILLE - That looking old De’Vion Warren warily opening Arkansas’ 2021 regular football season as a just off the injured list receiver ended it like the De’Vion Warren of old.
Now the Razorbacks seek one last encore from their since 2017 tenured 2021 bonus senior closing his 5-year letterman Razorbacks career at the New Year’s Day Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla. against Penn State.
A torn anterior cruciate ligament requiring major knee surgery ended Warren’s senior year 2020 in that 3-7 season’s Game 7.
Because covid so disrupted the 2020 football season everywhere, all who played in 2020 had the option to return in 2021 with their 2020 eligibility.
Warren opted back in though the injured knee still kept him out of spring ball. It was deemed OK by the season’s September start, but Warren didn’t open the season like before his 2020 injury. Last year’s big-play speedster looked tentative and dropped passes.
In the regular season finale though, Warren played a huge role in the 34-17 victory over Missouri. He caught two passes, one a 55-yarder, for 63 yards and ran an end around for 32 yards.
“I did feel I was playing my best ball at the end of the year,” Warren said after the Razorbacks practiced Tuesday. “This comes with coming back from injury. It’s not the injury, it’s more of the confidence that you have in yourself and in your body. So, that was more of it, being able to be confident in myself.”
Coach Sam Pittman and the Hogs need Warren at his best against Penn State.
For of all the Razorbacks receivers Warren in combined experience, speed and big play past comes the closest to the potential ball skills of Treylon Burks, the junior All-SEC first-teamer and by far leading Razorbacks receiver who has concluded his Razorbacks career to ready for the NFL Combine and draft.
Helena native and bonus senior Tyson Morris numerically is next on the team, 21 catches for 305 yards and two touchdowns to Burks’ 66 catches for 1,104 yards and 11 touchdowns, and will be looked to for a big New Year’s Day role. But as the speedy game-breaker whether on the deep ball or running a reverse, Warren seems the guy they must have.
“Oh, I’m more than ready,” Warren said. “But it’s not just me, it’s the group. We all have to be ready to handle the role that we’re going to be in this game.”
Given he endured a 4-8 overall/ 1-7 in the SEC season under Bret Bielema and the disastrous two 2-10 overall, 0-8 in the SEC years of the Chad Morris years, and an all-SEC improved 3-7 but still losing 2020 season under Pittman, what’s it mean to Warren finishing with an 8-4 overall/4-4 in the SEC Razorbacks in a prestigious New Year’s Day bowl in Florida?
“Being able to have the success we have it's been amazing,” Warren said. “It's been amazing from a coaches point, it's been amazing from has a players point being able to experience Arkansas being able to win and have respect in this league and college football, It's been great. I'm happy that I've been here to help with the rebuild being part of it. It's just been a good thing for me.”
As a true junior, Arkansas mostly reserve defensive end Zach Williams of Little Rock Joe T. Robinson, has played quite a bit of football but obviously not with the bowl spotlight that could glare or shine upon him in Tampa.
With graduate transfer starting defensive end and Razorbacks sack leader Tre Williams also since declared for the draft and not traveling to Tampa, Williams may advance to starting defensive end against Penn State in a D-line rotation including end/tackles Markell Utsey, Jashaud Stewart, Eric Gregory, Eric Thomas and nose tackles John Ridgeway and Isaiah Nichols
“It’s a big inconvenience that Tre isn’t there for the bowl game, but like Coach Pittman says, ‘All we have is all we need,'” Zach Williams said. “It would be easier if Tre was here, but I think with the rotation we have going on with me, Eric Gregory, Eric Thomas, John Ridgeway, Markell Utsey, I don’t think there will be much difference with Tre gone.”
Does Zach Williams feel more pressure to pressure Penn State’s passer subtracting Tre Williams’ team-leading six sacks?
“It puts on pressure for everybody, because Tre was a leading (pass) rusher,” Zach Williams said. “Now that he’s gone somebody has to fill in the job — either somebody or somebodies. It puts a little bit of pressure on us, but the way the coaching staff has been motivating us, it’s not really pressure, it’s more like motivation. I don’t really feel pressure to do anything, but I just want to do it, because that’s the right thing to do. I’m motivated to do it.”
And better equipped at a stronger, hands-ier, 6-4, 255.
“I’m pretty happy with the way that I’ve been using my hands more,” Williams said. “I’m starting to recognize blocks faster. That helps me get off. It’s mainly just the hands, but everything else, like I said.”
Fifth-year senior linebacker Hayden Henry believes Zach Williams can do the job.
“He's a baller,” Hayden Henry said. “He plays with a really high motor. He plays really hard, and he'll do it for four quarters. He's not afraid of contact and when you get him on the edge, he can win a one-on-one with a tackle."
Pittman continues the on campus bowl practices Wednesday and Thursday mornings then give the Hogs off through Christmas. They will reassemble Sunday in Fayetteville, fly to Tampa and resume their bowl practices there Monday.
Razorback junior defensive lineman Zach Williams (#56) from Little Rock, AR forces a fumble against Texas at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR.