Last season, Tevin Mitchel bolstered his NFL stock through a superb senior season that Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said got to the point where team's were actively avoding him.
Perhaps no one in college football boosted their stock more during the 2014 season than Arkansas' Tevin Mitchel.
During his junior season, Mitchel – who was labeled as one of the best cover men in the game – struggled at times against SEC competition, recording just five passes defensed and one interception in 11 games.
After flirting with the idea of redshirting the 2014 season, Mitchel instead opted to remain on the field, a decision that led him to an eventual selection in the 2015 NFL Draft.
In 11 games during his senior year, Mitchel recorded 20 tackles with eight passes defensed and two interceptions.
Against the then-No. 8 team in the country, Ole Miss, on Oct. 8, Mitchel had perhaps his best game as a Razorback, as he recorded a season-high eight tackles and an interception.
"I challenged him," Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema said in a story by ESPN’s John Keim. "If you come back, let's submit ourselves. You have to believe in yourself and family and Christ. He came back Full Metal Jacket Private Pyle. He came back going hard, everything from A to Z doing things right: changing his stance, changing his demeanor and mentality. Everything he did made him better."
It was a transformation like none he had ever seen before.
"I don't know in my coaching career now, head coach for 10 years, I don't know if I've seen a player change the value of name more in one year than Tevin Mitchel," Bielema said in an interview with ESPN 980. "A guy that maybe a year ago was a guy that people targeted and his last year they didn't want to have anything to do with him."
Mitchel was so effective during the 2014 season that the coaches played him in several positions in the defensive backfield.
Bielema also said he has "long arms" and is a "very, very powerful athlete for the position he plays."
"His dad was an All-American at Oklahoma, a quarterback," Bielema said. "Barry Switzer recruited him, and Tevin was a highly recruited kid out of Arkansas and stayed at home and thankfully he did, because he really left behind a really good senior legacy."
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