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Arkansas is at a historic low point. Coming off back-to-back 2-10 seasons, the Razorbacks have a new head coach after firing Chad Morris just 22 games into his disastrous tenure in Fayetteville.
They replaced him with a familiar name, but one who hasn’t been a head coach since leading a junior college team in the early 1990s and hasn’t even been a coordinator at the FBS level. Sam Pittman does have a reputation as an excellent recruiter and developer of offensive linemen, giving the Arkansas fan base at least some hope that he’ll be able to stabilize the program.
As if that wasn’t already a big enough challenge, Pittman is dealing with unprecedented circumstances during his first offseason. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, he and his almost entirely new staff lost all of spring practice, as well as a chunk of offseason conditioning.
The team reconvened in Fayetteville last month to begin working out and has recently started walk-through practices with the coaching staff on the field. Despite all the uncertainty still surrounding the 2020 season, Arkansas and the rest of college football are scheduled to begin fall camp Aug. 7.
Between now and then, HawgBeat will preview each of the Razorbacks’ position groups, breaking down the returning players and additions, providing the top storylines, and projecting a depth chart ahead of this critical stretch.
Next up are the running backs…
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NEW USERS | RETURNING USERS
The Roster
Returning players: Rakeem Boyd (r-sr.), T.J. Hammonds (r-sr.), A’Montae Spivey (r-fr.), Reid Turner (r-fr. - walk-on)
Additions: Trelon Smith (r-jr. - transfer who sat out 2019), Dominique Johnson (fr. - 2020 signee), Josh Oglesby (so. - walk-on from the track team)
The Starter
Arkansas has a bonafide super star at running back thanks to Rakeem Boyd’s decision to put a hold on his NFL dreams and return to school for his senior season.
He has been the Razorbacks’ top running back since coming to Fayetteville from Independence C.C. in the 2018 class. A former four-star recruit who originally signed with Texas A&M out of high school, Boyd is coming off a 1,133-yard season as a junior.
