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FAYETTEVILLE — Through the first seven games of the season, Arkansas has proven it has a deep stable of running backs.
Each of the Razorbacks’ top four guys are averaging at least five yards per carry and made explosive plays in big moments, but it sounds like they may shorten the rotation down the stretch based on comments by head coach Sam Pittman on Monday.
“Now there needs to be a little bit more of an order of, ‘This guy gets this many carries, this one gets this, that,’” Pittman said. “Before, it was kind of that way, but you’re dividing them by four. I think the division’s got to come maybe a little closer to three (or) two and a half.”
While Trelon Smith and Raheim “Rocket” Sanders have handled the biggest portion of the workload so far, that could change moving forward.
In limited carries this season, redshirt freshman Dominique Johnson has run for 218 yards and four touchdowns on 33 attempts. He’s averaging 6.6 yards per carry, which ranks fourth in the SEC, and that average isn’t inflated by mop-up stats against lesser opponents.
Even if you take out Johnson’s performances against Rice and Georgia Southern, he’s still averaging a respectable 5.4 yards per carry against Power Five opponents.
“The only disappointing thing to me…is I don’t think we’re getting Dominique Johnson the ball enough,” Pittman said. “Every time he seems to run the football, good things happen. To me, he probably has to double his load, what we’ve been giving him, because he’s proven that he’s a really good player.”
Considering he was so far down the depth chart during fall camp that he was briefly moved to tight end, Johnson has been one of the biggest surprises of 2021 for the Razorbacks.
A low three-star prospect coming out of Crowley High in Texas, he was actually recruited by some schools to play linebacker and flipped from Missouri to Arkansas during the early signing period for the Class of 2020.
After playing just two offensive snaps as a true freshman, Johnson has been the second-best player on Arkansas’ offense, according to Pro Football Focus, with his 82.3 grade trailing only quarterback KJ Jefferson (83.4).
“I think any time you get a young guy coming in he plays slower because he's thinking all the time,” Pittman said. “He's thinking, ‘Am I right, should I do this, should I do that, what's my read?’ Now he knows what his read is, he knows the play, he knows what the line is doing and where the line is trying to take him. He’s playing faster.”
On top of knowing the offense better and being more comfortable in the system, Johnson brings a level of physicality to the field that none of the other running backs possess.
Listed at 6-foot-1, 235 pounds, he is a bruiser who requires multiple defenders to bring down and Pittman has described him as the team’s best pass protector at his position.
Johnson’s desire to lay the wood has been on display a couple of times this season. He was flagged for a blindside block on which he lit up a Texas A&M defender and then a couple of weeks ago, he flattened an Ole Miss defender on a run by Jefferson.
“If I watch a running back go out and just lay somebody out like that I’m going to want to block for him even more, because he’s helping us out with every block he gets like that,” offensive lineman Ty Clary said. “If it’s a D-lineman and he pops him and lays him out, that D-lineman is going to be thinking about it the next time he has a pass rush.”
Last week against the Tigers, Johnson played the third-most snaps among Arkansas' running backs, but he did get the start. Pittman didn't reveal his reasoning for that decision beyond a vague, "We had our reasons."
Kickoff against UAPB is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT inside War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
