FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas running back Raheim Sanders had the kind of eye-opening moments as a freshman in 2021 that inspire plenty of confidence in a player for the future.
Among the highlights from his first run through the schedule with the Razorbacks included a punishing touchdown carry late in the 40-21 victory over Texas, a 139-yard performance at Ole Miss and a pair of two-rushing score outings against Missouri and Penn State to close the season. Sanders also caught a touchdown pass at Alabama in late November.
His 578 rushing yards, 109 receiving yards and 6 total touchdowns were impressive considering the Razorbacks’ loaded backfield. The fact that Sanders arrived at Arkansas envisioning a role at a different position makes those figures doubly so.
“We recruited him as a slot receiver, because he played wide out in high school, then he came here and we needed a running back, had some injuries and he came in,” Razorbacks Coach Sam Pittman said. “Last year, I thought he just took the ball and he ran hard.”
According to Pittman, entering his third season at Arkansas, Sanders has continued to run the ball during the team’s spring drills as hard and aggressively as he did last year. But there are differences in the back’s game.
And they’re positive. Sanders is evolving as a tailback right before his eyes.
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On April 5, before Pittman sat down to speak with the media for a Zoom news conference, he said he walked with the back and relayed how proud he was of the growth Sanders had made not only since his first day on campus but since the Outback Bowl victory over Penn State.
“I said, ‘You’ve turned out where you’re making cuts and you’re getting vertical and you’re seeing things before it happens,’” Pittman said. “He has some athletic ability to make you miss and run over you, but what he says is he understands everything now.”
Sanders, listed at 6-2 and 221 pounds on Arkansas’ spring roster, was more than likely in line for a fair share of first-team reps this spring. The absence of Dominique Johnson, a breakout player at the position last fall, for the duration of drills with a leg injury has pushed him into an even more prominent spot.
Johnson, who finished 3 yards shy of Sanders’ rushing total and scored seven times on a 5.9-yard-per-carry average, will be ready to rejoin the Razorbacks for team activities by early to mid-summer, Pittman said.
The larger role for Sanders brings additional playing time as well as a responsibility to lead younger players in the room like freshmen Rashod Dubinion and James Jointer, and AJ Green, a speedy back who received carries in 10 games in 2021.
“If you ask his teachers, the academic staff, the training staff, the nutrition staff, they’ll all tell you he’s been very mature ever since he got here,” Pittman said Tuesday. “He’s just a wonderful, wonderful kid. I do think that last year got him some confidence.
“Now he’s able to teach the young guys, [Dubinion] and some of those guys. I’ve seen him be a really good teacher on the football field.”
Sanders is carrying the challenge on his broad shoulders.
“Becoming a 1, just seeing different holes and just really seeing it from last year playing from the second and third sting, it actually helped me to become a 1 and see better things,” Sanders said earlier in the spring. “Being a 1, I feel like it’s a big role.
“That right there makes me want to be a leader not just for the running back room, but for everyone else, as well.”
Leading by example with the ball in his hands Tuesday in the Razorbacks’ 10th practice of the spring, Sanders began the first 11-on-11 team segment with a run that would have resulted in a first down.
“He’s seeing things faster, and you can tell,” Pittman said. “He’s getting north and south so much faster than he did last year, and he’s not missing his read nearly like he did last year.
“That was understandable because he’d never really played the position.”
Other pieces in Arkansas’ tailbacks room had noteworthy moments Tuesday. Javion Hunt, a redshirt freshman, ran for first-down yardage with the second-team offense.
Dubinion caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Malik Hornsby in 7-on-7 work and had a nice cut-back run for 15-plus yards with the second team. Jointer added a touchdown catch on a back-shoulder throw from quarterback Cade Fortin in a red-zone session.
Linebacker Christopher Paul was back on the field in a green no-contact jersey after sustaining a concussion in the team’s first scrimmage. Jordan Crook, a freshman linebacker, recorded a pass breakup on a Fortin pass in the red zone, and Bumper Pool and Drew Sanders had back-to-back tackles for loss.
LSU transfer Landon Jackson (ACL) took the field for drills with the defensive line for the first time this spring.
“I thought it looked pretty good, you know, especially for his first real movement since his injury,” Pittman said. “I thought he looked good. He’s long, big, a great kid. Works hard.”
Cornerback Dwight McGlothern, another addition from LSU, is battling a hamstring issue, Pittman said. McGlothern tried to work though some individual drills, but his hamstring that he tweaked on Saturday tightened up on him.
Malik Chavis took first-team reps at cornerback opposite Hudson Clark as he did Saturday.
Pittman said the Razorbacks would be installing new artificial turf on the outside practice field connected to the Walker Pavilion. Because the players didn’t like the artificial turf last fall, the Razorbacks worked the outside grass practice field and inside the Walker Pavilion, but sparingly on the outdoor turf.
“They felt like it’s hard on their knees and their joints,” Pittman said. “They thought it was a hard surface. … We decided as soon as spring ball’s over, or sometime in the summer, that we’re going to replace it.”
Tom Murphy contributed information to this report.