Sam Pittman shares Arkansas’ plan for starting tight end against Ole Miss

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman is still working out who his starting tight end will be for a Week 6 battle against Ole Miss. The Razorbacks suffered a brutal blow this past week when true freshman Luke Hasz, who had been the team’s starter through the first five games, suffered a broken clavicle.

Pittman later revealed that Hasz is out for the season, and Arkansas has a number of options who can step into his role. Var’keyes Gumms, Francis Sherman, Nathan Bax and Ty Washington are all candidates to see more playing time, but Pittman hasn’t decided who will run out with the first team Saturday.

The coach explained that will be determined in practice this week, as those players will “battle it out” to earn the position.

“We’re gonna play two of ’em with the first group and two of ’em with the second group and let ’em battle it out and figure out who it is on Saturday,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any of ’em that have really excelled over the other guy or anything like that.”

Whoever it ends up being will have a tall task in replacing Hasz. The true freshman out of Bixby, Oklahoma, ranked second on the team in the early going with 16 catches for 253 yards and three touchdowns. Now an Arkansas team that already ranked 12th in the SEC in passing offense is left scrambling to make up for that production.

Of the aforementioned options, Gumms seems to have the best chance at stepping in as the starter. He entered last week’s game against Texas A&M after Hasz went down and recorded one catch for two yards. None of the other three Arkansas tight ends have recorded a catch this season.

Washington is a former three-star recruit who caught a 17-yard touchdown in the Liberty Bowl as a true freshman last season. Sherman is a Louisville transfer who saw limited action with the Cardinals the past three years. Bax has the most experience in the program, having been in Fayetteville since the 2019 season.

All bring different things to the table, according to Pittman.

“You have two different types of guys,” he said. “You have Washington and Gumms and then you have Bax and Francis. So we’re just gonna let ’em battle it out this week and give them an equal amount of reps and see who we’re gonna throw out there on first (team).”

Kickoff between Arkansas and Ole Miss is set for 6:30 p.m. CT in Oxford.