FAYETTEVILLE — When Arkansas struggled to put quality depth on the field in its secondary last season, it had nowhere to turn for help.
So the Razorbacks redoubled their recruiting efforts at cornerback and safety over the winter. Newcomers in the Arkansas defensive backfield this fall include blue-chip freshmen David Gordon and Darius Winston, who might help this season but definitely are expected to be big-time players during their careers.
Then there are junior college transfers Rudell Crim and Anthony Leon, a couple of Florida natives who bring a combination of speed, quickness and power.
Defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said he is counting on Crim and Leon to help immediately.
"We're not bringing them in here to be backups," Robinson said.
Leon, 6-4, 225 pounds, a Miami native who played one season at Florida State before academic problems, has a highlight reel full of big-time collisions.
"Anybody who would turn his film on would definitely be impressed with the way he hits," cornerback Ramon Broadway said. "And that gives me confidence, when I've got a guy back there who is going to take somebody's head off."
Crim, 6-0, 190, a teammate of tailback Michael Smith at Tallahassee (Fla.) Rickards High School, was rated one of the top 10 junior college prospects in the country as a safety at Butler County (Kan.) Community College. He started out as a cornerback and nickel back for the Razorbacks and quickly rose to second team at boundary corner behind Broadway and first team in the nickel defense.
"Rudell has got great feet, he's got great listening skills and he learns real fast," Broadway said. "When we're not on the field, we're at my house talking about it, we've got the playbook open and he's asking me questions."
Leon was installed as a free safety and rapidly rose to second team there behind Matt Harris. Leon has already delivered some hard hits in fall camp, but his struggles with conditioning and a minor leg injury have cost him practice time.
Crim and Leon were held out of Thursday's morning workout. Crim returned in a yellow no-contact jersey Friday, while Leon continued his conditioning and rehabilitation on the sidelines.
"The struggles that they're dealing with now are obviously the conditioning and the package itself, because of how much we have in," Robinson said. "The conditioning part of it, they've got to fight through."
Crim and Leon are fighting through it together, having developed a friendship.
"Anthony Leon is a very quiet guy," Crim said. "I am also. I actually give him a ride home every day now. We always talk about the plays we saw that we messed up on on film."
Leon had to take five classes at College of the Sequoias the first part of the summer, spending as much as 13 hours a day on his studies, so he fell behind in his conditioning work.
"I'm just going through the pain of two-a-days, trying to gain and get better every day," Leon said last week. "At first, the schemes were over my head a little bit, but I'm catching on."
The Razorbacks are counting on their junior college additions to catch on quickly and be factors on what they believe will be a much-improved defense.
"Those are two highly talented young men and so where they fit in is going to be a matter of when they get back to being healthy and how fast they can pick it back up," Robinson said. "We brought those kids in to play and start for us."
Sports, Pages 21, 26 on 08/22/2009