FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman had hoped to have an update on junior running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders Wednesday afternoon, but no new information was available.

Sam Pittman did note that Sanders, who hasn’t practiced all week, won’t today either. That makes it very unlikely Sanders will be available against Kent State on Saturday.

“Yeah, I don’t have any more news at this point,” Pittman said. “Obviously he hasn’t practiced. He’s not going to practice today either, so that would limit him at best for the game, regardless of what we find out. But I don’t think it’ll be a lengthy injury either way. But you know we wanted some different guys to look at him so that’s what we’re doing. We’ll know something definitely by this afternoon what is going on.

“I’m sorry, I thought we might know something now but we don’t. Last second I checked my phone to see if I got any calls on it. I wish we would know a little bit more but he hasn’t practiced this week. I don’t think it’s a lengthy injury at all, but I can’t be 100% sure about that until I find out what he’s been told today.”

As a team on Saturday, Arkansas rushed 36 times for 105 yards and three touchdowns in a 56-13 victory over Western Carolina. Sanders led the way with 14 carries for 42 yards and two touchdowns. But four other running backs got carries.

Junior AJ Green had four carries for 22 yards, true freshman Isaiah Augustave four for 20 yards sophomore Rashod Dubinion three for 15 yards and redshirt junior Dominique Johnson three for 14.

“Well, I love our depth,” Pittman said. “I think R-Dub’s really good and all of them. AJ and Domo… I keep going back to two years ago, we had the same guys on the team and Domo was the starter later in the season. We kept trying to get him more and more carries. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t. But when we did, he was very successful. So I feel really good.

“You never want to lose a player for a game or two or whatever it may be, but that room is loaded with really good players. And we like Isaiah, as well. He got some carries last week and looked pretty good to me. Very physical runner. Jimmy’s (Smith) done a nice job recruiting that room, so we feel very confident in that room if Rocket wasn’t able to play, we’d be fine.”

Dubinion earned Offensive MVP in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl when he rushed 20 times for 112 yards and two touchdowns. He also grabbed three passes for 19 yards. In that game, Green also rushed 13 times for 101 yards and a touchdown. He also caught four passes for 30 yards. Sanders was hurt and Arkansas’ running game still exploded in the win over Kansas.

Johnson’s best season was in 2021 when he was able to play in all 13 games with six starts. He rushed 97 times for 575 yards and seven touchdowns. He also caught seven passes for 71 yards and a touchdown. He has battled knee injuries since then that has limited him to four games. He still has a big knee brace on and Pittman was asked on Wednesday how much that limits Johnson?

“I don’t think he feels like it limits him too much,” Pittman said. “It’s really up to him whether he wants to wear it or whether he doesn’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t wear it, assuming this weekend he would probably have a bigger role. But he had some success with it on in some scrimmages, had some long runs and things of that nature so that really at this point is left up to him.”

Arkansas will host Kent State on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The game will be televised on the SEC Network. Kent State is coming off a 56-6 loss to UCF in its opener.