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In a normal year, HawgBeat publishes a “Redshirt Tracker” after each week of the season to keep an eye on which players have played enough to burn their redshirt.
This started a couple of years ago when the NCAA made a rule change that allowed all players - not just freshmen - to appear in as many as four games and maintain the year of eligibility.
Last season, this proved to be a significant piece because of the way former head coach Chad Morris bungled the rule for a few players, using them on meaningless kneel downs in multiple games to essentially waste one of those four games.
However, this is far from a normal year. With the constant threat of COVID-19 forcing players to miss games - through positive tests or contact tracing - and even possibly canceling or postponing games, the NCAA voted to grant all players an extra year of eligibility, regardless of how much they play.
That will allow true freshmen and upperclassmen alike to play in every game this season without having to worry about burning their redshirt.
Because of that, HawgBeat decided to turn its “Redshirt Tracker” into simply a “Freshman Report” in which we give a rundown of which true freshmen have appeared in games this season.
Here is the update after Arkansas’ game against Florida…
RB Donte Buckner*
Games Played: 1
Snaps: 1 on ST
PFF Grade: 60.0 (ST)
Stats: N/A
Although he’s been on the travel roster all year, Buckner had not appeared in a game until getting in on the kickoff return unit for the Gators’ final kickoff late in the blowout. The walk-on from White Hall is a reserve running back, but his role on the team became much more important when A’Montae Spivey entered the transfer portal earlier this month.
That left the Razorbacks with only three scholarship running backs, making Buckner the fourth-teamer. However, with Dominique Johnson not making the trip to Florida, he was the third-team guy. By playing on special teams, he became the third non-scholarship true freshman to play this season.
