Cramsey: Arkansas Offense Has To Get 'A Hell Of A Lot Closer' To Perfection

FAYETTEVILLE — Peyton Manning, as Arkansas offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey explained Tuesday, was always "on a quest" to play a perfect game.

But it's hard to be perfect in football. Even the best offenses punt from time to time, and the best quarterbacks still turn the football over on occasion.

Arkansas' offense and QB KJ Jackson were far from perfect, however, in the Razorbacks' 31-14 season opening win over North Alabama on Sept. 5. Jackson committed two turnovers, including a costly interception in the end zone right before the end of the half.

As the Razorbacks prepare to head to Salt Lake City to face No. 20 Utah on Saturday, Jackson and the rest of the Arkansas offense don't have to be perfect to win — but they do, as Cramsey said, "have to be a hell of a lot closer."

"He demands more of himself than I could ever demand of him, okay? Ninety percent of the game, he played really well, 10 percent [is] stuff me and him need to fix," Cramsey said of Jackson. "As a quarterback, that's way too high of a percentage. It's the most important position in sports. We can't do that. I need to cut that down; that 10 percent needs to be cut down."

While the Razorbacks settled in offensive in the second half, the first half wasn't pretty. Alongside the two turnovers, Arkansas turned the ball over on downs and had only two scoring drives against an FCS team it was favored to beat by 40.

Cramsey said the unit had to gather themselves in the locker room before the second half began.

"You could go into the locker room and you could, at halftime and just start raising start screaming and yelling and throwing stuff and turning tables before you go in and say, 'Everybody take a deep breath. Everybody relax. Everybody go.'

"[We] came back out in the second half, we went on a touchdown drive. We fumbled, we went on a touchdown drive. We went on a four-minute field goal drive, we ended the game. Things were better when we took a deep breath.... We told everybody, 'take a deep you-know-what breath and let's go have fun playing football."

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jackson throws on the sideline during a second half timeout against North Alabama on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. | Nilsen Roman

Perhaps the biggest negative from Saturday's game was Arkansas' struggles in the run game. The Razorbacks averaged only three yards per carry against a defensive line that, while talented, shouldn't have had as much success as it did against an SEC offensive line.

"I do think at times they out-played us in the defensive line, they out-hustled us in the defensive line," Cramsey said. "And if you’re talking straight at that, yes, there’s scheme stuff we can do. There’s some stuff I can do. There’s some stuff we need to do.

"There’s a lot of things that, schematically we can and will do differently going into Week 2."

Kickoff between Arkansas and Utah is set for 9:15 p.m. CT on Saturday, with coverage on ESPN and the Razorback Sports Network.

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