For the first time all season, the Arkansas Razorbacks will likely be without sophomore right tackle Patrick Kutas on Saturday.
Kutas suffered a high ankle sprain during last weekend's 39-36 overtime win at Florida, and head coach Sam Pittman remained rather unsure on Kutas being able to suit up against Auburn for this weekend's matchup in Fayetteville.
"Probably still maybe a question mark on Kutas," Pittman said. "That ankle, even though he’s moving around a little bit, I don’t know how much availability he would have on Saturday, but we’ll still have to wait and see there."
Pittman sounded slightly more optimistic Wednesday about Kutas' availability than he did on Monday, but it still wasn't that great of an update.
"Kutas, I don't know if we're going to get him back this week," Pittman said. "He's got a high ankle, so I just don't know. From what I understand, depending on how high it is depends on the weeks. It's not an extremely high injury."
Senior Ty'Kieast Crawford took over for Kutas against Florida, and he will likely earn the start at right tackle if Kutas can't play against Auburn. The 6-foot-5, 326-pound native of Texas earned a 59.6 overall grade from Pro Football Focus across 58 snaps in the Florida game.
"Ty'kieast Crawford brought some juice, too," Pittman said. "I was really pleased and excited for Ty'kieast. We'll let them battle it out this week, but I would anticipate Ty'kieast being over there at the right side because he earned that. He played well."
Crawford's 72.3 pass block grade was the second best on the team, just behind SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week Beaux Limmer, who earned a 72.6 at the center position.
"He was really good in pass protection — really good," Pittman said of Crawford. "They were trying to bull him quite a bit because he’s so athletic that he was out on top of them. They tried to bull him, he set the bull down real nice. I was just… I thought he brought a lot of energy to the offense."
A native of Memphis, Kutas has started all nine games on the offensive line for the Hogs this year. He started eight at right tackle, while he started at center for the Ole Miss game on Oct. 7, though he ended up moving back to right tackle in that game.
Kutas earned his starting spot with a strong showing during spring practices and he locked it down during fall camp. Pittman raved about Kutas during the preseason practices, even throwing out comparisons to former Georgia Bulldog and first round NFL Draft pick Andrew Thomas.
Arkansas currently ranks 119th nationally with a team pass block grade of 51.3 from Pro Football Focus. While the blame doesn't all fall on Kutas, he has had a tough go at things and his season grade of 51.9 is the second worst of any Razorback offensive lineman (Andrew Chamblee, 47.8).
According to PFF, the 6-foot-5, 313-pound tackle has given up five sacks, 16 quarterback hurries and 23 pressures on the season. He owns a pass block grade of 42.6 an a run block grade of 56.5 across 552 snaps.
To be fair, Kutas is just a true sophomore who is in his first season as a starter in the SEC.
"It’s hard to become a sophomore when you’re still a freshman," Pittman said Oct. 2 when asked about Kutas and Chamblee. "I think it’s just experience. And they’ve got to do something well and I think any confidence then that helps them do something again well."
The Razorbacks and Tigers will kickoff at 3 p.m. CT inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The contest will be televised on the SEC Network.
