How Arkansas football's Rocket Sanders has emerged as No. 1 RB on Razorbacks depth chart

What Arkansas football will do at wide receiver has been a hot topic ahead of the 2022-23 season. But there's another aspect of the Razorback offense with plenty of intrigue: the running backs.

Arkansas led the SEC in rushing yards last season and lost only one major contributor from that roster. With experienced backs returning and talented newcomers on the roster at running back, one of Arkansas' chief challenges in preseason practice is finding the right balance in the backfield.

A pair of freshman, one transfer and four returners make up a Razorbacks running back room full of talent.

But coach Sam Pittman said that in the SEC, having a number of strong running backs to juggle is a good problem to have.

"It’s such a big league, a physical league, that a lot of teams don’t have a feature back; they’ll do it kind of by committee," Pittman said Wednesday. "Where we’re at is we feel like we’ve got (four) guys that we feel like we can have success with."

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Chief among those players is sophomore Raheim "Rocket" Sanders. As a freshman last season, Sanders was Arkansas' second-leading running back with 578 yards and five touchdowns on 114 carries. Leader Trelon Smith transferred to UTSA this offseason.

Sanders began preseason camp last week as the No. 1 back on the depth chart. It's a long way from where he started about a year ago, when he arrived on campus having played running back, receiver and linebacker in high school. He had never focused exclusively on the running back position.

Running backs coach Jimmy Smith said Saturday he's impressed with how Sanders has grown, both physically and at the position. The 6-foot-2, 221-pound Sanders is one of Arkansas' biggest backs, and Smith said he spent much of the offseason in the weight room.

"He's come as far as I've ever seen anybody come at a position that they didn't really play," Smith said. "He will tell me when he makes a mistake, and that's really important. For a guy to do something and tell you when they made a mistake, that tells you he really understands what you want from him."

Sanders joins junior Dominique Johnson, sophomore AJ Green and redshirt freshman Javion Hunt as the returners at running back for Arkansas. Johnson ran for 586 yards and seven touchdowns last season before suffering a knee injury in the Outback Bowl from which he is still recovering. It's unclear when he could be available.

Arkansas added Southern Arkansas transfer Dennis Daniels out of the portal, plus former three-star recruits Rashod Dubinion and James Jointer.

Coming off a 2021-22 season in which quarterback KJ Jefferson led the team in rushing with 664 yards and three other players had more than 500, Arkansas has to determine how to divide carries among its talented personnel. For now, though, Smith knows what he wants.

"If I had to do it right now, (Sanders) probably would get more carries," he said. "But as the season goes on you never know what happens. ... I tell my guys all the time, 'You don't get a starting job for a season; you get it for a week.' "

Christina Long covers the Arkansas Razorbacks. You can email her at clong@swtimes.com or follow her on Twitter @christinalong00.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas football's Rocket Sanders leads crowded running back room