FAYETTEVILLE - Ben Bogle made the most of his 15 snaps in Arkansas' season opener against North Alabama on Sept. 5.
The West Virginia transfer who also played at Southern Illinois had three tackles, including one for loss and a QB hurry in the Razorbacks' 31-14 victory over North Alabama. Bogle is listed as a second-team linebacker for UA on this week's depth chart, sitting beside Jeremy Evans and behind Bradley Shaw .
While he may not be No. 1 on the depth chart, Bogle's effort made it clear why defensive coordinator Ron Roberts referred to Bogle as an "alpha dog."
"I grew up with three brothers, so kind of always a hectic household, and always real physical and whatnot, so I kind of think that's in my nature," Bogle said Wednesday.
"You know, I always love smacking somebody, and that's kind of, you know, I think that's what football is all about. Whatever anybody wants to call me, they can call me. I just kind of play my game and continue to do that.
"I've always played linebacker my entire life. My freshman and sophomore year was kind of hectic. I had these little nick injuries and bruises, and kind of took me off the field. "
"Then my junior year, they needed me to play defensive end and defensive line. So I was like, alright I'll do it. Just trying to be a team player. Then my senior year, I was like hey, I'm not going to play college ball at defensive line. I'm a linebacker. So I switched to linebacker my senior year and had a very very good senior season. And the rest is history."
Bogle stepped up against North Alabama and will have to have another big game on Saturday if Arkansas is to upset No. 20 Utah. The Utes boast a potent offense led bu dual-threat QB Devon Dampier , who threw three touchdowns in Utah's season-opening beatdown of Idaho on Sept. 3.
"We've been simulating all week, trying to get after the quarterback," Bogle said. "We say once we hit him, he's not going to want to be hit. He's going to want to scramble and get out of the pocket.
"So we've got to do a good job of containing him and just getting after him and hitting him in the mouth. Just doing that over and over again. People can't handle that and I think they'll break down."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/arkansas as 'Alpha Dog' Linebacker Ben Bogle Breaking Out For Arkansas Defense .
