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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will be without one of its starting offensive linemen for an extended amount of time, head coach Sam Pittman announced Monday.
Right tackle Dalton Wagner is suffered a finger injury on his left hand that required surgery. No timeline for his return was given, but Pittman indicated it’d be several weeks.
“The bottom line is that it went out on him and they couldn’t get it back in place,” Pittman said. “He had surgery on that finger this morning, so his status is (he’s) not going to be available for a while.”
This news comes after he was spotted at last Tuesday’s practice with his left hand wrapped up in a club and Ty Clary took reps at right tackle in his place.
Although he was part of the Razorbacks’ 70-man travel roster at Ole Miss, Wagner did not play and Clary spent the entire game at that spot.
Losing Wagner is a blow to Arkansas’ offensive line because he’s been a pleasant surprise as a fifth-year senior. Even with a subpar performance against Georgia’s phenomenal front seven, the 6-foot-9, 330-pound lineman has a 75.1 Pro Football Focus grade this season. That ranks sixth among the 41 SEC tackles who’ve played at least 50 snaps this season.
Pittman said offensive line coach Cody Kennedy will have to figure out this week if he plans to keep Clary at right tackle or if left guard Brady Latham might move out and play there some.
Jalen St. John and Ty’Kieast Crawford are listed as the backup left and right tackles, respectively, on the depth chart, but they moved to guard last week and Pittman said he’d like to continue developing them on the inside.
In a corresponding move, Luke Jones moved from left guard to left tackle and Pittman said they are getting him ready to be a swing tackle capable of relieving either Clary at right tackle or Myron Cunningham at left tackle.
“I want to leave those two big kids inside,” Pittman said. “Part of that is because I think we need a big presence in there and another thing is I think Luke Jones looked really good last week at tackle.”
Pittman also revealed that starting safety Jalen Catalon suffered a broken hand at some point in the win over Texas A&M and has played through the injury the last two weeks.
That had an impact on his performance against Ole Miss, as he nearly came down with an interception on a drive the Rebels eventually scored on, but he couldn’t hang on to the ball.
“He’s got a broken hand, so he’s got a cast on there,” Pittman said. “It’s a little hard for him. He probably would’ve made that (interception). I believe he would have if he would’ve been able to not have a cast on, but all those things happen.”
Similar to linebacker Grant Morgan playing with an arm brace all of last season, it sounds like Catalon will have some sort of protection on his hand the rest of the year.
Another injury the Razorbacks’ defense has been dealing with is to Trent Gordon, the Penn State transfer. He is listed as the second-team nickel back on the depth chart, but has yet to make his Arkansas debut.
If he was healthy, Pittman said the former four-star recruit would be a significant contributor in the secondary. Luckily for Arkansas, he is getting close to being able to return to action.
“I’m hoping there’s a possibility he can get back this week,” Pittman said. “He was better last week. We didn’t travel him because we don’t travel guys that we don’t think have an opportunity to play.”
The Razorbacks return home to play Auburn this weekend, with kickoff scheduled for 11 a.m. CT Saturday on CBS.
