After a week filled with mourning, it appears a starting member of Arkansas’ line will be on the field for a huge matchup with top-ranked Alabama Saturday.
Shortly after UA’s win over Alcorn State, Frank Ragnow received word that his father had passed away suddenly of a heart attack in Minnesota. Ragnow flew back to his home state -- his head coach accompanied the senior on the flight back -- and the lineman has spent the past few days with his family dealing with their loss.
While Ragnow has not yet returned to Fayetteville, Bret Bielema said Wednesday that he expects Ragnow to return either Thursday or Friday. While nothing is written in stone, Bielema said that Ragnow plans to play against ‘Bama this weekend.
Regardless, the decision to take the field or not will be left solely up to Ragnow.
“One hundred percent,” Bielema said when asked if it would be Ragnow alone who decides. “I made that very clear for him early on. I knew he had certain things Saturday he said to me right away but again, when you’re in these type of scenarios, things change minute-to-minute and I just wanted to make sure he knew we were here with him and wanted to be around him if we can be a reprieve for him a couple hours each day that’s great.”
Ragnow has started all five games this season, four at center and one at right guard. He started all 13 games at the latter position last season. Should Ragnow decide not to play, it’s likely sophomore Zach Rogers would get the starting nod.
