By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

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Three of the top players at the position in all of college football will be on display.

Saturday’s Arkansas-Missouri game will be an SEC showcase for linebacker play. Three of the top players at the position in all of college football will be on display. Entering the weekend, Grant Morgan and Bumper Pool, for the Razorbacks, and Nick Bolton, for the Tigers, rank one-two-three in the conference in tackles per game. Morgan leads the country with 104 total tackles. Amongst those who have played more than four games, Pool is third nationally with 11.7 stops per game and Bolton is sixth with 10.8.

Morgan, Pool and Bolton are each All-American candidates. Playmakers, too. In addition to 262 total tackles, the trio has combined for 19.5 tackles for loss and 14 pass breakups. With seven total wins between Arkansas and Missouri, progress made despite very modest outside expectations, Morgan, Pool and Bolton have also all been leaders for their respective teams.

At 13 tackles per contest, Morgan’s current work rate would finish as the SEC’s highest margin in recent memory. Since 2012, only Cal’s Evan Weaver, amongst Power Five defenders, has finished with more tackles per game. Twice, this fall, the former walk-on has recorded 19 in a stops in a single game: Ole Miss and LSU. His performance against the Rebels is one of the most impressive in all of college football this season; Morgan recorded the aforementioned 19 tackles, three tackles for loss, two pass deflections and a game-sealing 23-yard pick-six late in the fourth quarter as Ole Miss had the ball with a chance to take the lead.

Pool, actually third on his team in tackles after Morgan and star defensive back Jalen Catalon, recorded 20 stops, along with a pair of pass breakups, in the Razorbacks’ win over Mississippi State. Then there were Pool’s 14 total tackles and three tackles for loss in a top ten pairing with rival Texas A&M. Had he played against Ole MIss, Pool would almost certainly be in the national top five in total stops, perhaps even higher. There is a great game to match his great name.

A year after leading the SEC with 8.9 tackles per contest and finishing second in the league with 107 total tackles, Bolton has continued to dominate as one of college football’s top defenders. Now at 183 stops over his last 18 outings, Bolton is currently as active as he has ever been in the offensive backfield, compiling 6.5 tackles for loss over his last four games alone. Bolton had 17 tackles at Tennessee, a fumble recovery against Alabama and is pacing a Missouri defense that has allowed ten points in its last two games.

Bolton and Morgan were recently named Butkus Award semifinalists.

The SEC is home to a number of the best linebackers in the game. Saturday’s Arkansas-Missouri game will feature three of them.