Dominique Reed, T.J. Hammonds Suffer Injuries In Arkansas’ Preseason Camp

Bret Bielema held an impromptu press conference after practice Monday morning to address some injury and roster updates, which were then reported immediately on social media and all the usual Hog outlets.

The most notable is that two players expected to be important parts of the team are currently sidelined with injuries, although the severity of the injuries is not expected to be severe.

Senior receiver Dominique Reed sprained an ankle during the scrimmage on Saturday and is out for one to two weeks. He should be back healthy in time for the first game, but with several reports indicating an inconsistent camp, you have to wonder how things will play out for him this year.

Also, freshman tailback T.J. Hammonds tore a meniscus in his right knee while preparing for the scrimmage and had surgery on it Monday. Apparently, best case scenario is that Hammonds will be back in 2-3 weeks but Bielema did acknowledge that Hammonds does of course have his redshirt available to him. I can’t imagine Hammonds being redshirted if he’s ready to go by the opener, but they do have that to fall back on if he doesn’t heal as expected.

Sixth-year senior Kody Walker is back in a walking boot this week to protect the foot he broke in the spring. He’s not expected to miss any game time. However, it is more and more looking like the Rawleigh Williams/Devwah Whaley show in the backfield this season, at least early on.

In other roster updates, sophomore Kendrick Jackson is being moved back to fullback from linebacker because of positive play from the freshman linebackers, and the offensive line shuffle will continue with Jalen Merrick getting his chance to earn the starting right tackle job.