By Matt Sugam

PISCATAWAY – While head coach Kyle Flood is getting more confident in P.J. James (ankle) availability for Rutgers at Arkansas on Saturday, the pecking order at running back behind Jawan Jamsion remains a mystery.

“He ran around a little today and he looked a little better today so I’m a little more optimistic that he’ll be a guy that we can turn to if we need him on Saturday,” Flood said. “I don’t know that he’ll be the first guy we turn to. We’re still working through that. That’ll be a little bit of a game time decision.”

Flood said it could even be Michael Burton, the starting fullback.

“Michael could play tailback for us if we needed him to,” Flood said. “He would know how to line up, he would know how to run the runs, he would know how to protect for us, so he’s an option. He’s one of the options we’re working through.”

Part of the reason he could be an option is because of the inexperience at the depleted corps with Savon Huggins (lower leg) doubtful. Between James, Ben Martin and Desmon Peoples, they have 10 collegiate carries, all of which were taken by Martin against Howard.

However Flood didn’t seem all that concerned about the lack of experience.

“I don’t worry about it, but it is on your mind. It’s always a concern is how I could say it,” Flood said. “And that’s why at the end of that [Howard] game I tried to get him [Martin] some carries just to see how he would react to it because until you put a running back in the game and get him hit under live fire it’s tough to tell how they’re going to react. You don’t really know. So there’s a little bit of an unknown factor there if those guys are in the game.”

Follow Matt on Twitter

Like Matt on Facebook