Rodney Hammond Jr. certainly hasn’t had the senior season he likely envisioned, but he may be back for one more next season.
Hammond — a 5-foot-9, 200-pound senior running back from Norfolk, Va. — was suspended at the start of the season, missing the first four games of the season, but he was reinstated before the North Carolina game. He played in the next four games but missed the loss to Virginia over the weekend.
Is there a chance Pitt decides to redshirt Hammond and preserve his final season of eligibility?
“For sure,” Pat Narduzzi said Monday at his weekly presser. “We’re playing that as far as just making sure we didn’t waste a year. So, we’ll see how the whole thing goes. We’re not just going to put him in there just to put him in there.”
Hammond has played just 16 snaps this season, taking 12 carries for 35 yards (2.9 yards per carry) and hauling in two passes for 10 yards. If he plays another game, he won’t retain any collegiate eligibility next season.
Hammond has handled the turbulent season well, remaining engaged with the team during his time away, and Narduzzi praised Hammond upon his return to the lineup last month.
“He’s been great,” Narduzzi said. “He’s been mature. It’s weird, I grabbed him, I don’t know if it was over the weekend, and just said you need to take every rep. We’re playing the best. He was on the scout team on Tuesday, and you need to go out there and play and give us that best possible look.”
Hammond led the Panthers with 118 carries for 547 yards (4.6 yards per carry) and four touchdowns last season, a season in which his usage was wildly inconsistent on a week-to-week basis, and he’s a three-year contributor.
He’s racked up 329 carries for 1,511 yards (4.6 yards per carry) and 14 touchdowns in three seasons at Pitt — adding 190 yards and two scores through the air.
Desmond Reid has emerged as the starter this season and can come back next season. It’s the end of the road for Daniel Carter, but Derrick Davis Jr., Montravius Lloyd and Juelz Goff are all set to return, too.
Rodney Hammond would be an intriguing addition to the room next season should he redshirt and return next season. And it would certainly be a better way to end his career in Pittsburgh after he decided to return this season to make a statement.
“We ain’t wanna leave business unfinished,” Hammond said in the spring. “A lot of us didn’t just want to leave that bad rap on our name. You can’t just go out there, 3-9 and then when stuff gets tough, you leave. No, I’m not that type of person. I believe everybody else that came back, they’re not that type of people. So, when stuff gets bad, we’re gonna stay down until we come up.”
He will be in the portal soon. Mark it down.