Pittman may adjust UA RB rotation

FAYETTEVILLE - Of problems recently besetting the Razorbacks, running back seems the least.

Yet Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman contemplates running back rotation adjustments.

Adjustments he’ll likely introduce as the Razorbacks, 4-3 after a 4-0 start, head into Saturday’s 11 a.m. SEC Network televised nonconference game vs. the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

The 4-backs rotation of fourthyear junior Trelon Smith and rookies Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, and AJ Green, true freshmen, and Dominique Johnson, a sophomore but zero carries last year, appears to work well, say the 2021 stats.

Smith, especially relied upon early while Johnson, Sanders and Green were getting established, logs 83 carries for 435 net yards and 4 touchdowns and a 5.2 yards per carry average.

Sanders logs 70 carries for 388 yards and a touchdown. He averages 5.5 yards and caught 5 passes out of the backfield for 55 yards.

Johnson logs 33 carries for 278 yards with 4 touchdowns and a team-leading 6.6 yards per carry.

Green, the fastest and missing one of the seven games because of injuries, has netted 158 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries. He averages 5.2 yards per carry and caught 5 passes for 74 yards including a 48yard touchdown.

They’ve performed so well that Razorbacks track sprinter/running back Josh Oglesby, impressing Pittman during spring ball and early preseason practices, has played only briefly mopping up two games.

On the surface the 4-man rotation appears to work well for everybody.

But Pittman sees a particular body not used enough.

Johnson, so powerful at 6-1, 235 that Pittman employed him for a practice day at tight end until Johnson appealed to keep trying at the running back position for which he was recruited, should log more than 33 carries and more time period at this stage, Pittman asserts. Especially since he’s the best blocker of the bunch.

“You know, the only disappointing thing to me is I don’t think we’re getting Dominique Johnson the ball enough,” Pittman said. “Every time he seems to run the football, good things happen. To me, he probably has to double his load, what we’ve been giving him, because he’s proven that he’s a really good player.”

Reviewing last Saturday’s 3823 loss to Auburn in Fayetteville, Johnson only logged six carries. He averaged the game’s best yards per carry, 7.0 for 42 yards and a touchdown.

Obviously if Johnson gets more somebody is going to get less.

“When you give reps, you give them so you can see what the kids are able to do,” Pittman said of the early season. “When you’re in Game 7, you’ve probably seen it. Now there needs to be a little bit more of an order of, ‘This guy gets this many carries, this one gets this.’ Before, it was kind of that way, but you’re dividing them by four. I think the division’s got to come maybe a little closer to three or 2.5.”