The 10 most painful Arkansas football transfers of all time
7. Jalen Catalon
Steven Atwater comes to mind when people think of the hardest-hitting safeties in Arkansas history. Another player is Jalen Catalon. Although the time he spent on the field was short, he made the most of his opportunities.
He was electric during his redshirt freshman season. Catalon played in all ten games and recorded 99 total tackles, forced two fumbles, defended seven passes, intercepted three passes, and returned one for a touchdown.
While he was great in the passing game, he wasn't afraid to run downhill toward running backs either, and when he did, Catalon hit them hard. The hashtag #freecatalon trended more than once due to him being ejected multiple times on targeting calls that were really just hard hits.
However, Catalon's career at Arkansas took a turn for the worse. After six games in 2021, he had a season-ending shoulder injury. Instead of transferring or medically retiring, Catalon decided to come back to Arkansas in 2022. However, in Arkansas's first game, he reaggravated the injury and needed season-ending reconstructive surgery. This time, he decided to enter the transfer portal and transferred to Texas.
As a Razorback, he finished with 159 tackles, 81 solo, 3.5 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, 14 passes defended, five interceptions, and a touchdown.
Highlight film of the new Texas Longhorn Safety: Jalen Catalon
— College Football Alerts (@CFBAlerts_) August 15, 2023
At Arkansas he became a starter going into his redshirt freshman season and recorded 99 tackles, 3 interceptions, 2 forced fumbles and 7 pass breakups and was named first team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) and a… pic.twitter.com/hSoTNhw9v7