By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas' deepest position on the team might be running back.
The Hogs return junior Raheim "Rocket" Sanders who finished second in the SEC in rushing last year. Sanders carried 222 times for 1,443 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also caught 28 passes for 271 yards and two touchdowns.
Behind Sanders is junior AJ Green, sophomore Rashod Dubinion, redshirt junior Dominique Johnson and true freshman Isaiah Augustave. The group along with some walk-on backs were all at the first practice Friday morning.
Sam Pittman obviously is very pleased with this group and likes what he has. He also paid a compliment to Jimmy Smith, who coaches the running backs.
"Yeah, you know a good coach keeps his players out of my office," Pittman said. "Now, they come in to visit but it’s not … “Hey, hey …” Jimmy does a great job. They respect him. Obviously we haven’t gone in the portal there, so that means two things to me: We’re recruiting really well there, and, two, there’s not conflicts in there. There could be, because you’ve got some good players in there. Dommo [Dominique Johnson] now, I believe, is going into Year 4 with us. Rocket and AJ is three. With R-Dub, I think he was the offensive MVP of the bowl game and all kinds of stuff. I just think we’re very talented in there.
"R-Dub had his best summer by far. He’s in shape. There’s power of being in shape. It’s powerful. It fills a lot of confidence being in shape, and he’s in good shape. Then Isaiah [Augustave], he’s big and can run. I like him. I don’t know how fast he’s … he’s picking up things, smart, but he’s a big, good-looking kid that can run. We’ll see if we can’t get him in there. But you know right now we’ve got a whole lot of guys that need a lot of touches, especially with Domo coming back. Domo is a little bigger than what he has been before, so we’ll see what kind of shape he’s in."
Johnson is coming off two ACL injuries and hoping for a healthy season. In 2021, Johnson played in all 13 games and started six of them. He rushed for 575 yards and seven touchdowns.
Sanders is up to 242 pounds and Pittman was asked if he can handle that much weight?
"Can’t do nothing about it," Pittman said laughing. "You’d have to cut skin. I mean, you pinch him and nothing moves. There’s nothing you can do about it. We talked to the nutritionist about it and we talked to Ben (Sowders) about it. He’s 242 and there’s no fat there. So I don’t know what you do with it. But he’s in shape."
The team entered Friday's early practice in relatively good health. Obviously cornerback Quincey McAdoo isn't practicing after being involved in an automobile accident last spring.
"(Wynne offensive lineman) Terry Wells would be one that is going to be out for a while," Pittman said. "He tore his pec. Man, he’s had some bad luck. But Terry would be one, so we just activate someone else. That would be one, and I think the rest of them, now there will be some like (Dominique Johnson), we’re not just going to run him out there and let him do everything. He will be at every position drill, every team drill, he just might not take as many team drills as he might late, early."
Arkansas will return to the practice field on Saturday.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Action Sports
