For the second week in a row, the Arkansas Razorbacks will be without star running back Raheim "Rocket" Sanders when the BYU Cougars come to Fayetteville on Saturday.
The junior tailback missed the 28-6 win against Kent State over the weekend with a knee injury and head coach Sam Pittman confirmed Monday that Sanders will miss another week.
"Rocket will be out this week and then we’ll figure out how fast he can recover," Pittman said. "Got to get some swelling off of him. Once we do that, we’ll see how fast (we can get him back). Whether we can have him back for LSU, I just don’t know right now."
Sanders suffered an injury to his left knee in the Week 1 win over Western Carolina at War Memorial Stadium, and Pittman said that Sanders started to notice swelling on his knee the day after the 56-13 victory against the Catamounts.
"Rocket has an injury that is going to take a couple of weeks to heal, but that's the length of it," Pittman said on his radio show at the Catfish Hole last Wednesday.
Pittman added on his radio show that Sanders' injury won't linger further than "maybe a couple of games." The hope is to have him back for the Sept. 23 matchup at LSU, which was announced Monday to be a night game in Death Valley.
Sanders carried the ball 12 times for 42 yards and two touchdowns in the season-opening 56-13 win over the Catamounts last Saturday. The yards per carry average of 2.9 was tough and Sanders also caught two passes for negative four yards.
Getting the team's start tailback would be crucial, as the offense has looked fairly stagnant in the run game during the first two weeks. While the play calling has been vanilla, Sanders proved in 2022 that he can be one of the nation's most electric running backs when healthy.
Arkansas will once again rely on AJ Green, Rashod Dubinion, Dominique Johnson and even freshman Isaiah Augustave against BYU. Green led the team with 82 rushing yards on 15 carries against Kent State, while Dubinion and Johnson added a combined 42 yards on 17 carries against the Golden Flashes.
While the news of Sanders being out against BYU is tough, the Hogs are hoping to have starting cornerback Dwight "Nudie" McGlothern back after he missed virtually the entire Kent State game with turf toe. McGlothern played the first snap of the game, but came right out and didn't return.
"He got (the turf toe) on Thursday," Pittman said. "Late in the practice on Thursday. We thought he was going to be okay, then he went out there and said he couldn’t push off of it...But I expect Nudie back this week."
A preseason Second Team All-SEC selection, McGlothern is an integral piece of the Razorbacks secondary, which will be tasked with stopping BYU quarterback Kedon Slovis and the Cougars' passing attack. Slovis threw for 348 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Southern Utah over the weekend.
It's worth noting that TCU transfer Kee'yon Stewart filled in for McGlothern during the win over Kent State and Pittman was pleased with Stewart's performance.
"In all honesty, Stewart played a good game," Pittman said Monday. "Had one ball caught on him there, but played a good game and it’ll help us in the future with that."
Arkansas and BYU are set for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
