Sam Pittman evaluates running game during first scrimmage

Sam Pittman has overseen nine practices thus far and decided to have a scrimmage. For the first time this spring, Arkansas was out there in a game-like mode against one another. The rust might have been showing, as Pittman was not too happy with how the offense performed in the rum game.

Pittman was pretty honest about it as well. He admitted there were plenty of negative plays from the running backs. Of course, quarterback KJ Jefferson has been a huge threat on the ground. However, being a spring scrimmage, he was never going to play a factor.

Two guys got a shoutout from Pittman for at least making some kind of play, while Rashod Dubinion was on the unfortunate end of some criticism.

“I don’t think the run game was good,” Pittman said. “A lot of zero-yardage gains. A lot of negative yardage gains. Now, you’re looking at ones, twos, and threes — things of that nature. AJ (Green) had a nice run. Rashod, it wasn’t one of his better days. Didn’t have a lot of area to run. But AJ made a few plays and Rocket (Sanders) certainly made a few guys miss and ran over a few guys and made some yards. But the run game, if we were playing a game, it would have been not successful for the day.”

Arkansas, Sam Pittman looking for production out of running backs

Pittman is an offensive line coach, loving to have a tough unit up front. Just as anybody else in his position would, running the ball should be known as the staple. That’s been how Arkansas operates over the past few years and will continue to do so — even under new offensive coordinator Dan Enos.

Arkansas averaged 236.7 yards per game on the ground last season, good enough for second in the SEC. Only Ole Miss was a bigger number than the Hogs, potentially a surprising statistic coming from head coach Lane Kiffin.

Sanders is going to be the feature back once again heading into 2023. On 222 carries, Sanders got 1,443 yards and 10 touchdowns, going for 6.5 yards per carry. Quite the impressive number when going up against SEC defensive lines. Similar stats will be needed out of Sanders.

Thankfully, this was only the first spring scrimmage of the year. Pittman will have plenty of time to tweak the system and make sure Arkansas is full-go come September.