Sam Pittman suspends running back, Hogs readying for Aggies

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman announced a suspension prior to beginning his press conference today.

Junior running back won’t be playing any time soon according to Pittman. Dubinion has seen limited action this season. He has three carries for 15 yards and caught a pair of passes for 14 more. In 23 games prior to this season, Dubinion has three starts. He had 153 attempts for 553 yards and six touchdowns entering this season. In two years previously, he also had caught 26 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns. He was the only scholarship running back from last season who opted to return.

“Let me say this, too, we have suspended Rashod Dubinion indefinitely for a violation of team rules as well,” Pittman said.

This week the Hogs will once again be on the road as they head to Arlington’s AT&T Stadium to face No. 24 Texas A&M. Both teams enter the game with identical (3-1, 1-0) records.

“Excited to go to Dallas,” Pittman said. “Texas A&M has a really good team, very physical offensively. Big offensive line, huge offensive line, really well coached. Has a lot of speed in their skill positions, a lot of big receivers. Quarterback Marcel Reed, we’re familiar with him. We tried to recruit him here. He’s got a strong arm and an ability to run. I think he might’ve been their .. I think he rushed for 90 or 91 yards last week. They play a lot of different running backs. All of them have a great skill set: Fast, speed, physical. Then I really like their tight end corps

“No. 17 (Theo Melin Ohrstrom), I don’t know how to .. I don’t want to disrespect him by not knowing how to say his last name, but Theo, he’s made a couple of touchdown catches. He’s a really good route runner. So there on offense, a lot of things to be concerned about and to plan for.

“Defensively, they’re really good on their front four. They have a lot of depth there too. A lot of athleticism there. Have some returning guys at linebacker that made a lot of tackles a year ago and then their secondary is really good. Special teams wise, their kick returner/punt returner is dynamic. The (Terry) Bussey kid. But he was the No. 1 athlete in the country I think a year ago when A&M recruited him. A year or a year and a half ago. So a very good team. Their one loss is to a really good Notre Dame team. So we’re excited to go into Jerry Jones’ place, the former Arkansas Razorback, and play the Aggies.”

Arkansas suffered some lingering injuries in a physical loss to Oklahoma State in Week 2. Pittman is hoping to get some of those players back this week.

“I’m concerned,” Pittman said. “We’re out of it healthier than what we were at Oklahoma State. But the problem is some of them guys that were hurt at Oklahoma State aren’t back yet either. I talked to Dave (Polanski) and I said we need to get some guys back. We keep going in but we’re not getting as many back. I do think there’s a possibility to get (Hudson) Clark back this week, get (Jaylon) Braxton back. They would probably be on the list as probable right now if we came out with that. I thought (Addison) Nichols, I think he’ll be a lot better at today’s practice than he was last Monday. So really out of that game, you know (Andrew) Armstrong took a heck of a hit but he obviously played. Really not anybody coming out of that game that we don’t anticipate being ready to play this week.”

Arkansas has suffered some very disappointing losses in Arlington against the Aggies. The lone win for Pittman there was 20-10 in 2021. John L. Smith (one year) Bret Bielema (five years) and Chad Morris (two years) never defeated A&M. The lone win by Pittman is Arkansas’ only one in the series since Bobby Petrino, now the offensive coordinator, was the head coach.

“Well, I guess this is Year 10 and I don’t know how many we’ve won,” Pittman said. “How many have we? One? It was a couple years go. So obviously it hasn’t been a great series for us. But there’s excitement in recruiting about the game. There’s excitement for the players. We have a lot of Texas kids and going back to Dallas and playing in the stadium. And great alumni of Mr. Jones. But, to be honest with you, with Little Rock and with Dallas, we’re playing one game out of the first five at home and Auburn’s going to play five in a row at home. I believe that it’s really hard to get the fan base excited if they don’t have an opportunity to see the Hogs. This would give an opportunity, at least one more every other year, to have a home game. So as grateful as we are for going to Dallas, it’s the last time obviously we’d like to win it and bring the trophy back.”

Arkansas and Texas A&M will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be shown on ESPN. The SEC announced on Monday the Arkansas and Tennessee game in Razorback Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 5, will kick off at either 6 or 6:30 p.m. and be televised on ABC or ESPN.