HawgBeat - Rocket Sanders using past as motivation
Arkansas running back Raheim Sanders is using his past to motivate him to push forward this season.
arkansas.rivals.com
Arkansas running back Raheim "Rocket" Sanders hasn't had the start to the season that he and Razorback fans were hoping for.
After suffering a knee injury in the season opener against Western Carolina, Sanders didn't see game action again until Week 5 against Texas A&M — a game that saw him run the ball 11 times for just 34 yards.
The Preseason All-SEC First Team running back has carried the ball 34 times for a measly 91 rushing yards (2.7 yards per attempt) and two touchdowns in 2023, a far cry from his 1,443-yard, 10-touchdown sophomore campaign in 2022.
Despite the uninspiring early showings during the first half of the season, Sanders said he believes that he and the rest of the team are due for success if they stay together.
"Of course, I didn't know I was going to go through the situation I'm going through," Sanders said Tuesday. "Who knows the next route of everything. I'm just leaving it in God's hands and just with this football team as well we're all together.
"It's going to develop up front. It's going to develop offense in general. We're going to have our game eventually. Just leaving it in God's hands with my part of it, but as a team God is going to change the situation very soon."
Through the halfway mark of last season, Sanders had already accumulated 695 rushing yards and five touchdowns off of 125 carries.
The early knee injury has played a role in his lack of production up to this point, but another big issue is the lack of holes provided by the offensive line for Sanders to run through. On the year, Arkansas' rushing attack ranks 83rd in the country with only 143.7 yards per game.
Not everything can be pinned on the offensive line alone, however. Sanders believes he and starting quarterback KJ Jefferson need to grow as leaders and have better communication if the offense and rushing attack is going to improve.
"Like I said, I didn't plan for the season to go like this," Sanders said. 'Who did? Who wanted it like that, you know what I mean? For that to go, I feel like communication and everybody having faith, not just in the team but in themselves on both sides of the ball. So really just having faith in each other and making sure that as a running back or as a quarterback, just having faith that they're going to make the block, in pass protection or the run game."
To stay motivated through the trials and tribulations of his junior season, Sanders looks back at his past to help him push forward.
"I’ll make it short by saying, I’ve been through a lot, up and down," Sanders said. "And I always look back to what I didn’t have, and then what I have now. Just really taking it back to where I came from.
"That’s what keeps me motivated, and what I have now. I feel like that’s the key thing. A lot of people forget what they had back in the day, to now, and what it took to get me here. So I feel like I always look to that to keep me motivated so I will never be down."
Things aren't going to get any easier for Sanders, though. Arkansas is traveling to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, next Saturday to take on the No. 11 ranked Crimson Tide and will have to face the nation's 23rd-best rushing defense (105.2 yards allowed per game).
Last season, Sanders managed to run for 101 yards and a touchdown off of 22 carries against the Tide. The Hogs need him to have a similar level of success this Saturday if they hope to pull off the upset.
"I think they got four returning starters," Sanders said. "I don't know for sure, but I feel that they still run the same defense. Yeah, I had a good game against them last year, but we didn't win. So, I feel like at the end of the day I did my job in a way, but at the same time I didn't do my job because we didn't end with a victory.
"So, starting with this game, I feel like it's not just about me, not about the run game. It's whatever starts out right. I've been watching the defense, been watching the film. They great guys over there. One thing about Alabama just in general since I've been here, they're going to be in the right spot. They're going to be in the right area at the right time, they're going to do their job."
Arkansas (2-4, 0-3 SEC) and No. 11 Alabama (5-1, 3-0 SEC) will kickoff at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
