FAYETTEVILLE — At 21 positions, these Razorbacks have players competing to start.
At right offensive tackle they have Noah Gatlin and Dalton Wagner wishing the other fit to show up.
Only one made it to kickoff these last two games. Arkansas lost Oct. 31 at Texas A&M and won last Saturday hosting Tennessee.
In the 30-28 loss at Auburn on Oct. 10, the starter lasted one play.
The patchwork persevering pair painfully plods on. They’ve helped the Hogs — wallowed 0-16 in the SEC under the Chad Morris regime — unbelievably blossom to 3-3 under new Coach Sam Pittman.
Wagner, the 2019 every game starter but beaten out by Gatlin in 2020, seamlessly stepped in at Auburn.
“You know Noah got hurt the first play of the game,” Pittman said. “Dalton Wagner came in and played well. Man, I’m proud of him! He’s got such a great attitude.”
Gatlin stepped right back in to start the next game that beat Ole Miss. In the 42-31 loss at Texas A&M, Gatlin played without backup. Injured or ill, Wagner did not travel.
Last Saturday vs. Tennessee with Gatlin similarly unavailable, Wagner started.
“How can you not like Dalton Wagner?” Pittman said. “He’s just a hard-playing guy. Quarterback got hit a time or two, but for him not repping a lot during the season and going in there and starting and playing well, I was proud of him.”
Unable himself to travel because of twice testing positive for covid-19, Pittman craves Gatlin returning for Saturday’s game at Florida.
“Maybe we can get him back on Wednesday,” Pittman said Monday. “We need him, obviously.”
Gatlin, 6-7, 307 out of Jonesboro, was Morris’ most promising true freshman of 2018 playing the maximum four games to still redshirt.
A preseason knee injury requiring season-ending surgery quashed Gatlin’s 2019.
He’s avidly rehabbed thereafter. Whenever health allows, Gatlin has NFL tools.
And Wagner?
Pittman admires the fourth-year junior from Spring Grove, Ill., cheerfully enduring back injuries and other ailments.
“Wagner, he’s just an old, tough, country kid,” Pittman said. “He might be one of the most popular kids on the team. Every time he gets in front of the team everybody is whooping and hollering.”
Should Wagner ever turn pro, it might be wrestling, which offensive line coach Brad Davis suggested.
A long-haired 6-9, 319, Wagner does resemble “Son of the Undertaker,” Wagner said, referencing the 6-10 now 55-year-old “Undertaker” wrestling icon.
“Ironically, Coach Davis brought that up,” Wagner said. “He said I could make millions in professional wrestling.”
Maybe, but this way more refined than he appears country boy sports an economics degree and other plans.
“After football I’ll try to use my soon-to-be Masters degree and try to go to work for the FBI or something like that,” Wagner said, then country boy aw-shucked. “If that don’t work out, I can get a shot at pro wrestling.”