Cramsey Wants Smith More Involved in Arkansas Offense This Fall

Senior running back poised for big year in Razorbacks backfield after transfer from Memphis

Arkansas Razorbacks running back Sutton Smith warms up during the Red-White Spring Game. | Sutton Smith, Instagra

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Redshirt senior running back Sutton Smith is going for one last ride at the college level before he plans on heading to the professional level.

With his eyes set on competing in the SEC, the 5-foot-9, 197 pound athlete can do it all out of the backfield. He can run between the tackles embracing contact, out run defenders along the edges and even catch the ball well out of the backfield.

One area that's an underrated part of his game is at kick returner, where he's recorded 29 kickoff returns for 714 yards and one touchdown in his career. A true all-purpose back with more than 2,000 yards and 14 career touchdowns to his credit, Smith could become a breakout star for the Razorbacks this fall.

Arkansas Razorbacks running back Sutton Smith looks for running room during spring practice | Sutton Smith, Instagra

After averaging less than nine carries a ball game last year at Memphis, Cramsey seems to want to up the amount of touches Smith will get each game. The Arkansas backfield is already a diverse unit with several different style of runners between Braylen Russell, Cam Settles, TJ Hodges and others, but believes it's time to up the workload for his speedster.

"Sitting here today, Aug. 6. I'd like to up [Smith's workload], but it all depends upon how games are going, how situations are going, and all that," Cramsey said Thursday. "You know, just because last year we had we had a couple guys back there who were getting ball to. We were shared playing time heavily there at Memphis.

"One had had 10 carries a game, and the other kid had 10 carries a game, then another kid had 10 carries a game, and then you want to throw the ball 25...30, times a game. You start running lower plays. Plus, you had a quarterback at the other plays that you wanted to get 10-15 carries. So all of a sudden, you start running at plays unless you can find a way to get 90 plays."

While Smith might have plenty to offer out of the backfield, it's must be understood that Cramsey likes to feed the hot hand instead of forcing guys into the flow of a game. That's the role of a play caller is to keep things rolling, and did exactly that during his time at Memphis.

Arkansas Razorbacks running back Sutton Smith during spring practice drills. | Munir El-Khatib-allHOGS Images

"Sutton's a guy that, in my mind right now, is a guy we've got to put in space," Cramsey said. "A guy we got to move around and find more ways to get him the ball. The ball will find you.

"Sometimes the ball finds you, but then there's guys on the team that you better have plays on the call sheet, a box on the call sheet that says they get the ball, and that the young assistant coaches are in my year saying, 'Hey, it's in the first quarter. So and so has three three touches.' All right, we better get him more touches. He's one of the guys that falls into that category right now.

Cramsey believes his group of running backs are competitive, talented and ready to each day in camp to earn how ever many snaps they receive in Week One against North Alabama.

"The other guys are all battling to see what happens there," Cramsey said. "At the same time, if somebody's got the hot hand... and we go in September 5 and Braylen [Russell] was running run the ball well then you've got to keep feeding the hot hand, too."

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