Sam Pittman confirms Braylen Russell will play in Liberty Bowl after transfer portal changes

RB Braylen Russell, who planned or entered as well as exited the transfer portal twice already during this cycle, will be available later this week for Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl.

Sam Pittman shared that in a press conference on Monday following his decisions the past two weeks, including going on a visit elsewhere, with the portal.

“We’ve got a running back. Braylen Russell is going to play,” Pittman said with a laugh. “He’s here, you know. So that’s been back and forth there but we’re glad to have him.”

“I think he’s been to over half of (the bowl practices). So he’s ready to go. He obviously practiced on Sunday and practiced today, practiced, I think, twice. So he may have been in about four of them to this point,” said Pittman. “He’s in good shape. So, he’s looked good in practice, you know. Rodney and Tyrell both have looked good in practice as well. So, I think he’s ready to go.”

As for his thoughts on Russell’s transfer choices, Pittman said it has since been completely cleared between the freshman back and the team.

“Well, I can give you a coach’s answer on it a little bit. We talked him out of – he went in the portal and I called him in, talked to him, and he decided not to go in the portal. Then I don’t know the reason of going back in. Then he texts me and said, ‘Coach, I’d like to talk to you’ and that was after the second time that he’d went in the portal,” Pittman explained. “Obviously, we had an agreement there about, you know, because the look wasn’t good on him nor me or the program. If we were going to have him back, we wanted to make sure that it was the last and final time.”

“I felt good about that. He felt good about that. So, that’s kind of what happened,” said Pittman.

Russell was the Razorback’s fourth-leading rusher this fall behind Ja’Quinden Jackson, Taylen Green, and Rashod Dubinion. In his first collegiate season, he had 47 carries for 304 yards and a pair of touchdowns. That’s after Russell, a native of Benton, was one of the top signees for them in the last cycle as a three-star prospect and the No. 30 RB in the class.

Pittman is right in that all not being the best look for anyone in Fayetteville, especially with all the other portal news for them and specifically for Russell. Still, with him now back for the ‘Hogs, he’ll be playing for them again against Texas Tech in Memphis on Friday.