Sam Pittman provides injury updates on Dalton Wagner, Taurean Carter

Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman had some injury updates on a pair of linemen who are banged up for the Hogs. One, Taurean Carter, has been out for the season.

The other, offensive lineman Dalton Wagner, has missed a few practices and returned to practice on Wednesday, Pittman said. Having Wagner healthy would be big for a banged-up Arkansas team headed into a showdown with LSU.

“I think he will practice today though — well, I know he will. How much I don’t know, but he’ll practice today,” Pittman said.

If Wagner can’t go, Arkansas will likely turn to Ty’Kieast Crawford to fill the void. Pittman expressed confidence in the junior to go out and be every bit as capable as his currently-injured counterpart.

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“In front of him is Dalton, who we know is a good player. Knows what he’s doing. All those things. Ty’Kieast really hasn’t had all that many opportunities because of that,” Pittman said. “Again, I’ve talked about him ever since fall camp. I think he’ll be a fine player for us in the future and I think if we go with him on Saturday he’ll do a great job.”

As for Carter, Pittman said he was hopeful to get him back potentially for the matchup with Ole Miss on Nov. 19. Now, he said the earliest to possibly get Carter back would be the season finale against Missouri.

But Pittman hopes he can get another game beyond that.

“If we can get another game and get bowl eligible, I’m positive that he would be ready for that bowl game. But I think my hope was that he might be ready for Ole Miss and then Missouri and hopefully we can get to 6, 7, 8 [wins] and go a bowl game. But I felt always that he’d be ready for the bowl, hoping Ole Miss. Looks like the best we probably could do is Missouri,” Pittman said.

If Carter does make it back, he won’t use up any eligibility because he’ll appear in fewer than four games.

“That’s the good thing about it,” Pittman said. “He can get out there, get some confidence and not have to burn a redshirt year.”