Why Rocket Sanders prioritized his health in making his transfer decision for USC
Rocket brings attention. Rocket brings notoriety. Rocket brings expectations.
Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, the prized Arkansas tailback who decided to transfer to South Carolina this winter, is not naive to his situation.
“I won’t be able to help the team if I’m hurt. I can be a vocal leader and talk, but if I’m not back with the team, I can’t help the team,” Sanders said. “One thing I’m big on is with my name (being) Rocket, I’ve got all that fame behind my name, but I’m a guy (who’s) quiet and wants to show my talent.”
By his sophomore season at Arkansas, the college football world had Rocket on a first-name basis. He nearly led the SEC in rushing, powering his way to 1,443 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.
Sanders went into his junior season with expectations of becoming the best tailback in America. Instead, he played in just a half-dozen games. He hurt his knee in the Razorbacks’ season-opener and later tore a labrum in his shoulder, which required offseason surgery and will keep him out of of the first part of USC’s spring practices that begin March 19.
“I’m just rehabbing to get back,” Sanders said Thursday.
Which leads us to why Sanders chose South Carolina.
When he announced his decision to leave Arkansas and enter the portal, the notifications didn’t stop. Sanders was giving himself social media breaks because the attention was so overwhelming.
Sanders wanted his second recruiting process to be quick. So he took just one visit — South Carolina. What he was looking for in Columbia was a plan to not just get him healthy, but keep him at his peak.
“What made me choose here was the way they were gonna take care of me physically and mentally — but the big thing was physically,” Sanders said.
The senior said he sat down and spoke with South Carolina director of football nutrition Yimy Queipo Rodriguez as well as strength and conditioning assistant coach Chip Morton, who spoke about his 27 years working with NFL players.
Another source of comfort was assistant strength coach Jamil Walker, who was Arkansas’ head S&C coach during Sanders’ breakout 2022 season.
“(I wanted to) go somewhere that was going to help my body,” Sanders said.
At Arkansas last year, the 6-foot-2 Sanders weighed 242 pounds. It was a little more weight than he wanted to play at, but his early-season injury made it tough to slim down. Right now, he admitted, he’s still around 240 pounds, but the goal is to lose 10 to 15 pounds before the season gets going.
“The body fat is not bad — that’s the good part of it,” Sanders said. “(By the) summer, I’ll get down fast just because it’ll be hot out and I’ll be getting the right food in me like I am now.”
Sanders knows his name and his past have thrust expectations on his shoulders. He plans on meeting those, on returning to 2022 form. But none of that is possible if he’s standing on the sidelines.
So rather than talk about goals or stats or anything like that, Sanders just kept bringing up health.
“I won’t be able to help the team if I’m hurt,” he said.
This story was originally published February 8, 2024 at 2:28 PM.
