Two Razorbacks leave team, few injury updates for Ole Miss game

By Otis Kirk
on 2024-10-28 13:03 PM

FAYETTEVILLE — A pair of tight ends are off the Arkansas football team with Ole Miss coming to Fayetteville on Saturday.

Junior Var’keyes Gumms and sophomore Ty Washington are off the team for violation of team rules and Sam Pittman said Monday they don’t have the option to return.

“No,” Pittman said when asked if suspended. “They’re not on the team. There was no suspension. They’re not on the team.”

Neither had made an impact this season. Washington caught 2 passes for 25 yards and 1 touchdown this season. Gumms has no statistics.

Pittman said so far no personnel changes from last week.

“I don’t think so,” Pittman said. “I mean, (Patrick) Kutas started. I think him and (Keyshawn) Blackstock will be there. Our tight ends are our tight ends that played. I think Ja’Quinden Jackson will be doubtful again this week. I think Rodney Hill will be probable and Jaylon Braxton will be doubtful as well. Injury-wise, yes.”

Jackson was injured against LSU and didn’t play in the Mississippi State game. Jackson leads the team in rushing with 552 yards rushing and 10 touchdowns on 104 carries. Hill has 15 carries for 78 yards and a touchdown this season. He has also missed some games with injury. Pittman was asked if Jackson will be back this season?

“Yes, absolutely,” Pittman said. “Yeah, and I think, I mean, if he’s not back Saturday, I’m very confident he’ll be back for the remaining three games after the bye.”

Kutas and Blackstock split time at left guard.

“They both played well,” Pittman said. “Kutas played a few more snaps than Blackstock did. Both of them had great attitudes about their situation, and as we’re moving forward, we’ll continue to evaluate that, but they both played well. Kutas played exceptional for his first game back. He played really well.”

Pittman plans to redshirt Kutas who played in his first game on Saturday. With four games left in regular season that means Kutas could play in three of them. Pittman wouldn’t reveal his plan though, but did say he is going to redshirt Kutas. One would assume Pittman will play Kutas in the three SEC games remaining and sit him against Louisiana Tech.

“I have a plan to play him four games,” Pittman said. “So we’re going to try to play him on Saturday, and that’ll be two and then we’ll try to figure that out. But the deal that we talked about was he wanted to redshirt. And I said, ‘Hey, now, we ain’t trying to redshirt you for somebody else.’ He said, ‘No, coach, I would never. I’m a Hog, I want to be here.’ He kind of lost that freshman year on special teams — He didn’t lose it, but it was special teams, didn’t play a lot of offensive line. This would be our way of getting that back, but we’re going to play him Saturday. How about that? And then we have two more opportunities to figure out two out of three.”

The Hogs need one more win to qualify for a bowl game. If they do reach a bowl game the players who have played four games can play and not lose their redshirt.

“Sure, you know what’s happened a little bit with the portal,” Pittman said. “Some of the bowls have been not laughable, it’s sad actually. You’ve got 60 guys and a quarterback out there, number 97 who is playing quarterback. I’m glad that they’ve given that back, so you have four games and any postseason does not count towards eligibility as far as losing your redshirt. Actually we had six guys, please don’t ask me who they are because I don’t know who they are off the bat but we have six guys that we talked about. Kutas is one of them. Braxton was one of them, he’s played in two when he is able to get back. There was six of them that we are going ok. Offensively, Kobe Branham, he’s played in one game now, he has an opportunity to play in four more. What do we want to do with him? The answer is we’d love to have him come back four years. He’s not going to leave us, he’s an Arkansas kid, die hard. Mom and daddy too. Those things we went over this week just to make sure where we were. There’s about six of them where we have to make choices.”

Pittman feels that Luke Hasz and Andreas Paaske can carry the load at tight end. Both caught a pair of touchdowns against the Bulldogs on Saturday.

“Well, yes, I think they can,” Pittman said. “But, you know, Maddox Lassiter has played a lot of ball so I have a lot of confidence in him. We also got Josh Street ready when we were banged up a little bit, and we’ll have a few more ideas for that position, but yes, absolutely, I think they can and I think they will. I think they showed that on Saturday, as well, and along with Lassiter. I think Lassiter’s role, we may have to give him a few more responsibilities. Maybe some on the line. We haven’t used him a lot there, but obviously we believe him because he’s played a lot of ball for us.”

Arkansas and Ole Miss will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday and televised on ESPN.


(Last updated: 2024-10-28 13:03 PM)