Bielema announces injuries to two offensive players; plus position change
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema briefly met with the media Monday and unfortunately had some bad news to share as senior receiver Dominique Reed sprained his ankle and true freshman running back T.J. Hammonds has torn his meniscus and was forced to have surgery.
It was also announced sophomore Kendrick Jackson would be moving back to fullback.
Although Arkansas has a deep group of receivers, losing Reed for any significant amount of time could be bad, as the senior came on strong down the stretch last season. Against Ole Miss, Reed had seven catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns and went for three catches, 83 yards and score against LSU. Fortunately the Razorbacks are expecting Reed to be back by the time the season arrives.
“Dominique Reed basically has an ankle sprain, so he’ll be out the rest of the week,” Bielema said. “Probably out most of next week. We hope to get him back on game week… He rolled that ankle pretty good, so he’ll be out the next week or two weeks. ”
Hammonds’ loss could be more significant, as the freshman was expected to at least push for time on the field at running back. However, despite recently saying Hammonds would play this season, Bielema described him as a redshirt guy Monday after the injury.
“Unfortunately, T.J. Hammonds in pregame warmup, made a cut, non-contact, might of had something before, don’t know, but he had a slight meniscus tear and will have that repaired today,” Bielema said. “We are doing the surgery right now. He’ll be out two weeks, three weeks, good news is he’s a redshirt guy.”
It was also announced sophomore Kendrick Jackson would be moving back from linebacker to fullback.
“We made one true positional change we moved Kendrick Jackson back from linebacker to fullback,” Bielema said. “He was just getting buried on the depth chart at mike linebacker and we have an immediate need at fullback. He played (fullback) last season and did a nice job.”