Arkansas is going to be razor thin at running back when spring football kicks off in less than a month in Fayetteville due to players recovering from surgeries.

HawgSports.com has confirmed that Arkansas junior running back T.J. Hammonds will miss spring drills for certain after coming off a knee surgery towards the end of the 2018 football season. Largely due to injuries suffered throughout the year, Hammonds only played in four games in 2018. Thanks to the new redshirt rule that allows players to contribute in four games and still maintain their redshirt, Hammonds will return for the 2019 season as a redshirt junior. It was already public knowledge that fellow junior back Rakeem Boyd would miss the spring after having surgery right after the season to repair a torn rotator cuff and labrum in his shoulder.

“Had a little surgery after the season. Had a rotator and labrum tear, so I had to get it fixed up for the season,” Boyd said in an interview with DriveTime Sports nearly three weeks ago. “Through most of the season, I was staying healthy, but I was running the ball a lot. That’s just what you’ve got to put on the line. I’m fine with it. I’ll do it next year if I have to.”

Hammonds suited up in the first three games but missed the Auburn game in Week 4. He returned for action the next game against Texas A&M but then missed the Alabama matchup. The next week, despite traveling to Little Rock and suiting up, he did not play in the Ole Miss game due to an ankle injury. The next time Hammonds was seen on a game day, he was on crutches with a knee brace to keep it immobilized.

Last season, Boyd led all rushers with 123 carries for 734 yards (6.0 yards per carry) with a pair of touchdowns. He also finished third on the team with 23 receptions and had 165 receiving yards. He did all that despite only starting eight games and getting off to a slow start due to arriving less than a week before the start of fall camp out of junior college.

Hammonds, who came to Arkansas via Little Rock (Ark.) Joe T. Robinson in the Class of 2016, had 10 rushes for 28 yards (2.8 ypc) and 4 catches for 84 yards and a touchdown on a 64-yard jet sweep pass at Colorado State. While it isn't certain what the knee injury was, he did have two prior minor surgeries earlier in his career for meniscal tears.

With both Hammonds and Boyd out in the spring, a lot of the workload will fall on senior Devwah Whaley, junior Chase Hayden and sophomore walk-on Kasey Montrois. With Whaley having so much experience, he may not be asked to do much during scrimmages, so it might make sense to move a player who played running back in high school to running back at least for the time being.

Spring practices begin on Feb. 26 for the University of Arkansas.