Sam Pittman: Arkansas uncertain on Antonio Grier's status for Week 1

Heading into Week 1, Arkansas Razorbacks head coach Sam Pittman admitted that the status of transfer linebacker Antonio Grier is uncertain after his name didn’t appear on the team’s initial depth chart.

During Fall Camp Grier has been battling a quad injury. As Pittman explained, he has started practicing but his status for the game itself remains uncertain, forcing him to leave Grier off the depth chart.

“Yeah, it’s a matter of if he’s going to be healthy enough to play,” Sam Pittman said. “He did practice on Saturday, not necessarily physically, but he was out there in some 7-on-7s and doing some things.”

Antonio Grier is a linebacker who brings plenty of experience to Arkansas after transferring in from USF. A three-star recruit in the 2018 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, he comes to Arkansas with one year of eligibility remaining after playing in 40 games since 2018 with the Bulls. There, he was a Second Team All-AAC selection twice but was hampered by injuries in 2022.

For his part, Sam Pittman isn’t ruling out a return to play in Week 1 for Antonio Grier. It’s just going to depend on how healthy he can get.

“So, we’ll see how he comes around today and tomorrow. We’ve got to get going. It’s not his fault, but if he gets healthy, obviously, he’ll have some type of role on Saturday but we just don’t know right now whether he’ll be healthy enough to play or not.”

While he was at USF, Antonio Grier was a bright spot and a team leader for several difficult seasons. During that time, Grier accumulated 234 tackles, 22.5 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, and two interceptions.

Arkansas opens the season against Western Carolina before taking on Kent State in Week 2.

Sam Pittman is confident Jaedon Wilson will play

One player who Sam Pittman is confident will play Week 1 against Western Carolina is Jaedon Wilson. A wide receiver, Wilson has missed time after he suffered a cracked tibia in a car accident during the offseason.

“He’s healing up,” Pittman said. “I’m confident he’ll play.”

This will be Wilson’s third season with the Razorbacks, after playing a relatively limited role in his first couple of seasons with Arkansas. Still, Sam Pittman expects him to play a larger role in the offense this season following turnover in the receivers room and the offensive coordinator change.

“I think that Wilson would have a little bit [of a leg up] because he’s been in the system,” Pittman said. “Not necessarily in not in Dan [Enos’] system, but in our system as a team. So I wasn’t too concerned about him and he showed up today because he showed up all summer, you know.”