Like Everywhere on Offense, Razorbacks Need Clear No. 1 Running Back

Lots of optimism and hope for someone to emerge, but it's going to take awhile to find answer to that question

Razorbacks running back Rashod Dubinion running for yardage in Red-White game in April at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. / Michael Morrison-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Projecting how any Arkansas running back will be doing in November while we're at Father's Day is like rolling the dice on a street corner. There's a lot of hope more than certainty. A lot of factors go into determining that.

The coaches know all of this, too. Oh, don't be expecting them to come right out and say it, but they have seen enough in the spring and off-season workouts to see what they have, but nobody has been willing to make any wild predictions.

"Do we have that one horse yet?" Pittman said in the spring. "We're still trying to evaluate that."

Coaches are always optimistic these days. Yes, there are times some us old-timers would just be straight-out. Lou Holtz was great at poor-mouthing his own team (which usually meant they were pretty good) or building them up (uh-oh when that happened). That transfer portal has also drastically changed motivation.

The whole offense is in pretty much the same position. Don't expect a prediction one way or the other from me right now. They may end up leading the SEC in offense or somewhere near the end of the pack. Even new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino needs the players. His track record shows to never expect instant change because it takes some development. Even when he came to Arkansas in 2008, Things got better when all that talent had played a couple of seasons.

Plus, there are always injuries, refs' calls and several other things. Most of all they are going to need some kind of running game. That could be either to set things up or let the passing game set up running at the end to shorten the game and close out a win.

"When we came off the field last week after the three practices and after the scrimmage, I said to Coach Pitt, 'We're going to be able to run the ball.'" Petrino said back in the spring. He didn't add the disclaimers, which are always the fallback.

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