Sam Pittman provides injury update on Taurean Carter ahead of bowl game

Sam Pittman provided an injury update on Arkansas defensive lineman Taurean Carter ahead of the Liberty Bowl.

According to the Razorbacks leader, Carter won’t be playing in the game against the Liberty Flames.

“Taurean Carter will not play in the bowl game,” stated Pittman. “… It’s just, we talked about it. I sat down and talked to him about it. I just don’t know. … Didn’t feel like he was going to be ready-ready, you know. Fully. He’s moving, running and doing some great things. But if you think about it, if you can hold him one more game, then that allows him to have certainly another three months of healing, and it hadn’t been the nine-month usual deal.

“So, between myself and Taurean, we decided that that’d probably be the smartest thing to do with him.”

Evidently, Sam Pittman is taking a long-term approach to Taurean Carter’s status for Arkansas, and that’s likely the smartest thing for the Razorbacks.

Report: Arkansas zeroing in on Tulane’s Chris Hampton as new defensive coordinator

Meanwhile, Arkansas is looking to New Orleans to fill a key staff position, zeroing in on Tulane defensive coordinator Chris Hampton to take the same role with the Razorbacks, according to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. The previous Arkansas DC, Barry Odom, recently took the head coaching gig at UNLV.

Under Hampton in 2022, the Green Wave finished in the Top 50 nationally in both scoring defense (tied for 25th) and total defense (33rd). Now, according to Feldman, “Hampton has emerged as a strong candidate for the Arkansas defensive coordinator job” because of his work at Tulane.

Hampton has been a long-time member on staff at Tulane, coaching in his sixth season there in 2022. He started as defensive backs coach before bumping up to defensive coordinator in 2021. 

Prior to Tulane, Hampton was a defensive assistant at McNeese State and Arkansas State, plus had several graduate assistant gigs.

He played college football at South Carolina, where he was a safety.

On3’s Andrew Graham contributed to this article.