Bearcats Defense
Deshawn Pace, linebacker
Deshawn Pace took a huge step last year and made so many plays for the Bearcats defense that it would be wrong not to put him as a player to watch for Saturday. Pace seemed to get better as the season went on last year and is being seen as one of the top linebackers in all of college football this year. He finished the year sixth in the conference and third on the team with 94 tackles while also adding nine for loss and a team-high four interceptions. The junior has been nominated for many preseason awards and could be a huge playmaker for the linebacking core who is rated as the number two overall linebacking core in College Football per Pro Fantasy Focus.
Ja’quan Sheppard, cornerback
Ja’quan Sheppard is an interesting one, but a player that needs to be circled for this game. The Bearcats lost two big members of their secondary to the draft in Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and Coby Bryant. Teams were not able to throw over the right side with Sauce being there and had trouble throwing the ball at all when playing the Bearcats. Sheppard will step into Sauce’s role this year and even though the Razorbacks didn’t throw the ball a lot last year could try to exploit Sheppard and see what he is made of. He talked about this after practice saying, “I expect them to throw the ball at me it’s based on experience and respect and they don’t know me yet so I expect them to take some shots at me and I’ll be ready.” This will be an area of the game we might be talking about after Saturday is over.
