Rocket Sanders deal starting feel like Rakeem Boyd 2.0 at Arkansas
On-Pace Guy strikes again.
Arkansas running back Rocket Sanders started the 2023 season with a reasonable, if still difficult, chance to crack the top three in Razorbacks history at the position. The junior was a preseason All-American entering the fall after rushing for more than 1,300 yards as a sophomore. Another 1,000-yard season would have fifth on Arkansas’ all-time list.
Instead, Sanders will be likely to have a 100-yard season as a junior as coach Sam Pittman said he was unsure if his star back would return this season. Sanders hurt his knee in the team’s season opener, missed three games, returned for two, but has been sidelined since.
“I don’t know. I really don’t,” Pittman said when asked about Sanders’ timetable. “He’s not going to play Saturday. I really don’t know. It just depends on how he feels and the progression of his rehab.”
Sanders’ situation calls to mind that of Rakeem Boyd. Boyd was Arkansas’ lone preseason All-SEC selection as a running back in 2020. He was coming off a season in which he ran for more than 1,100 yards, but he ended up missing times with a lower leg injury before practically opting out of the team’s final three games of the regular season and its bowl, which ultimately didn’t come to fruition because of COVID-19, anyway.
Boyd declared for the NFL Draft in December of 2020 and it’s possible Sanders does the same in 2023.
AJ Green has been Arkansas’ leading rusher this season, though he has just 239 yards. The fewest yards an Arkansas leading rusher has had in a season in the modern era is 443 from Broderick Green in 2009.
