The Arkansas Razorbacks boast perhaps the deepest, most talented backfield in the SEC in 2015, but nothing in college football can last forever.

Jonathan Williams, the team’s leading rusher from a year ago, enters his final year of college eligibility this year, and two-time 1,000-yard rusher Alex Collins is likely to leave for the NFL a year early after his junior season this fall. Even third-string back and occasional fullback Kody Walker, who ran for 176 yards in the Hogs’ spring game, is a senior on his way out of the program after the coming year.

Should Collins bolt for the NFL as many expect he will, that would leave the Hogs with just three scholarship backs currently on the roster: Redshirt freshman Juan Day, redshirt sophomore Denzell Evans and true sophomore Connor McPherson. Those three players have combined to rush for 36 career yards on seven career carries, all of which was amassed by Evans in games against Nicholls State and UAB last season.

To put it another way, none of those three backs has ever handled a single carry against an SEC opponent, or even a power conference opponent, but come 2016 they may be the ones tasked with handling all the carries.

It’s worth noting the impending addition of 2015 three-star tailback signee Rawleigh Williams, who is slated to arrive on campus this summer. It remains to be seen what kind of immediate impact Williams can make this season (likely not much of one with Jonathan Williams, Collins and Walker still in the fold), but one can figure he’ll at least have a chance to work his way into the 2016 tailback rotation, if for no other reason than a lack of an obvious featured back.

This all begs one simple yet vital question: Should Arkansas be concerned by its lack of tailback depth beyond this season?

The question is valid. After all, the run game has always been the lifeblood of Bret Bielema’s offensive philosophy. He won Big Ten titles and Rose Bowls running a pro-style offense predicated on a downhill rushing attack, and he’s turned the Arkansas program around in only two years using the same system in the toughest division in all the land. Needless to say, the system works, but if the Hogs lack tailbacks to rely on, the system might be tested unlike ever before.

All four backs in question — Day, Evans, McPherson and Williams — were rated as three-star prospects coming out of high school, so while none have a concerning lack of talent, none were rated as high as former four-star recruits in Jonathan Williams and Collins.

Still, to tie this all back to the question posed above, no, Arkansas has no reason to be worried about its offense, and more specifically its backfield, in 2016.

You see, tailbacks are only part of a successful rushing attack. Just as important as the ball-carrier are the men paving the way for said ball-carrier. And if there’s one unit Bielema recruits and develops better than the rest, it’s actually the offensive line, not tailback.

Not a year goes by that Bielema doesn’t sign at least one four-star offensive line prospect, and Hogs’ fans can count on always having talent up front as long as Bielema is running the show. This year’s exciting new addition is four-star guard Jalen Merrick, an early enrollee who should be up to speed by the fall, enabling him to immediately provide depth along the line.

In 2014, four-star offensive tackles Brian Wallace and Frank Raganow joined the group, laying the foundation for the line’s future beyond this season, when current tackles Dan Skipper and Denver Kirkland are expected to declare for the draft (Merrick would likely replace Sebastian Tretola, another 2016 NFL draft prospect).

In 2013 Kirkland was the four-star guard Arkansas fans were raving about, and that signing has paid off in the form of one of the SEC’s most versatile linemen entering 2015.

So we know Bielema can recruit and develop offensive linemen, and we know to expect the Arkansas line to be the biggest and most physical line in the conference as long as the current coaching regime is in place. So yes, the lack of proven tailbacks is a bit concerning for a team this dependent on the run (and for a team that’ll also be searching for a new quarterback next offseason), but it’s no reason to expect Arkansas to show a serious regression.

The run game may dip a bit in the first year after Williams and Collins leave, if for no other reason than there haven’t been enough touches the last two years to get backs like Day and McPherson involved in any capacity. That learning curve may limit the rushing attack early in the year, but those running backs are certainly capable of starring in the SEC. Remember, last year’s freshman phenom Nick Chubb was a three-star recruit, and he actually leapfrogged a four-star prospect from the same recruiting class in Sony Michel to replace the suspended/injured Todd Gurley.

Bielema only needs one of his four backs buried on the depth chart to step up and take the reins of the run game. He’ll provide the best run-blocking line in the conference, and all the back will need to do is find a hole, follow the hole and not fumble. The rest will take care of itself.

I understand a lot of this article is simply giving Bielema the benefit of the doubt, specifically regarding his ability to maintain the Razorbacks’ offensive line, which may lose as much draft talent next year as the backfield. But Bielema’s recruiting classes speak for themselves, as do his conference championships and bowl victories.

As long as he can recruit talent to specifically fit his system, there’s no reason to believe his system won’t work, even in the daunting SEC West.

So while Arkansas is about to lose two tailbacks with three 1,000-yard seasons in the last two years, all for the same team, there’s no reason to believe the run game will be any less productive moving forward.