Arkansas coach Sam Pittman called Jalen Catalon one of the more valuable members of the Arkansas defense, and the Razorbacks had a big void when Catalon was ejected for targeting against Texas A&M.

“I think they’ve done a really good job,” Pittman said of the secondary overall at his Monday press conference. “Losing Catalon the other night showed. He’s as important as anyone on the defense. He’s very valuable back there, we learned a lesson about having another guy in his position ready to go.”

Pittman explained what he told Catalon about the hit that he was flagged for, and how to balance that aggression with staying within the rules.

“He’s the most valuable guy we have back there, he runs it,” Pittman said. “He’s aware of what teams are doing because he watches a tremendous amount of film, so does the whole secondary. He’s very, very, very valuable to our football team as a young man and as a player. So obviously you want to keep those guys on the field as much as you can. He tried to knock a guy out a little bit too much for me. He’s going to have to slow down and wrap up a little now and then, he’ll miss some tackles certainly you want him to make, but you don’t want to take that physicality away from him. … We’d like to keep the knock out part and maybe wrap up a little bit more.”