All 105 is a Pittsburgh Sports Now series profiling each of the 105 members of the Pitt 2024 training camp roster.
Rodney Hammond Jr., a senior running back from Booker T. Washington in Norfolk, Va.
2023 season: Hammond played in all 12 games last season, making six starts in a crowded running backs room
Stats: Hammond led Pitt with 547 yards and four touchdowns last season and has racked up 329 carries for 1,511 yards (4.6 yards per carry) and 14 touchdowns
Camp outlook: Hammond enters camp as the lead back on the offense, and he will have the opportunity this summer to show that he’s ready to carry the load at running back
Projected role: Hammond is going to be the No. 1 option, but it remains to be seen how the running backs rotation will shake out in the new offensive scheme. He will have his opportunities to shine
Rodney Hammond Jr. (5-foot-9, 200 pounds) initially committed to Pitt as a highly-rated three-star recruit in the class of 2020, picking the Panthers over Penn State, Michigan, Maryland, Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, South Carolina and TCU.
Hammond is an interesting evaluation. He was supposed to take the next step in 2023, but his usage was… confusing, to say the least. He led the Panthers with 118 carries for 547 yards (4.6 yards per carry) and four touchdowns, and he’s the most talented runner on the roster. At least, I believe he is.
And if new running backs coach Lindsey Lamar could pick one trait for his players to embody, it would be hard work. He doesn’t have to wish that Hammond worked hard. Hammond is once again showing that he works incredibly hard — with superior attention to detail and a professional mindset every single day.
“I love Rodney,” Lamar said last month. “He’s been great. He works. The biggest thing for me is you give me a guy that’s gonna work. And right now, Rodney is showing me that he works. Obviously, he’s a guy that’s played some ball here, played a lot of ball for us here, but I’ve been impressed with the way he works.”
Hammond returns for one last season as the top running back on the roster, but with a switch in the offensive scheme and the emergence of Desmond Reid, it remains to be seen how the workload will be distributed.
