Razorback QBs: Why Jackson Is 2026 Starting Pick for This Season

ESPN’s early rankings show Arkansas won’t chase relevance in 2026 — it’ll test itself weekly against teams already carrying expectations.

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jackson (7) attempts a pass in the first quarter as Texas A&M Aggies defensive end Cashius Howell (9) defends at Razorback Stadium. | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

If you’ve ever wondered how SEC coaches decide on a quarterback, the Razorbacks’ situation for 2026 might be your case study.

Arkansas is stepping into a new season with a familiar face projected under center, but it’s hardly a settled story — and that’s exactly how fans wanted it, right?

Let’s start with the guy ESPN pegged as the starter for 2026 in KJ Jackson. The redshirt sophomore has been around long enough to earn a good eye-roll from the purists and a cautious vibe from the optimists.

Jackson, a former three-star recruit from Alabama, didn’t walk onto campus with fireworks and hype.

Instead, he stayed put through a coaching change at Arkansas, which, if you’ve followed Razorbacks football, is about as rare as a quiet Quinn-related post on social media.

Late in the 2025 season, Jackson got a chance to show what he could do. He relieved Taylen Green against Texas and threw for 206 yards and a touchdown in a road loss.

Not dazzling, but enough to make people nod and squint at analytics a bit.

That performance earned him a start in the finale versus Missouri, where he completed 11 of 17 passes for 126 yards and a score. Fairly modest, but also undeniably more than zero starts at this level.

Experience matters at quarterback, especially in the SEC, where patience usually lasts about two drives and one bad throw. Jackson didn’t solve Arkansas’ long-term question, but he didn’t make it worse, either.

That’s how you end up on a projection list. Not because you dazzled, but because you survived, showed competence, and stuck around long enough for coaches to trust you.

And in modern college football, trust might be the most valuable stat that never shows up in a box score.

Spring Practice Looms, and It’s Not Quiet

Now Arkansas — not some mid-tier program in the Mountain West, but the Razorbacks — head into spring practice with a battle brewing.

Sure, Jackson gets the nod on the prediction board, but spring is the season when “starting QB” stickers get tested.

The biggest challenger is AJ Hill. Once a top-100 recruit in the 2025 class, Hill spent his first season at Memphis before following his coaches to Fayetteville.

The expectation is that he won’t just smile politely from the sidelines.

He’ll push. He’ll compete. And he’ll probably make the veterans wonder if they should’ve reclassified themselves, too.

Arkansas also added Braeden Fuller, a veteran Division II transfer from Angelo State. Since when does a Division II transfer get thrown into “who’s gonna start” chatter in the SEC? Since 2026, apparently.

Then there’s Hank Hendrix, a three-star commit who reclassified to the 2026 class a year early. That’s coach speak for “Buckle up, we might see you sooner than you think.”

For the Hogs, this isn’t about finding a savior. It’s about finding someone who can operate the offense without setting off alarms by mid-October.

Jackson’s advantage is simple: he’s already done it, at least a little, under pressure and on the road.

That doesn’t make him untouchable. It just makes him first in line.

Jackson’s Road Isn’t a Straight Line

Jackson’s path to the QB1 tag wasn’t handed to him with a velvet rope and a red carpet. After starting just a couple of games last season,

He’s an understandable choice for a prediction — coaches like continuity — but he’s hardly a slam dunk.

Remember, Arkansas isn’t exactly known for quarterback stability lately. If you blinked during the 2025 season, you might’ve missed the sequence of players under center.

But Jackson’s late-season work gave the new staff, led by Ryan Silverfield, something to hang their hats on heading into spring.

Competition at quarterback matters in Fayetteville. Whether it’s evaluating a returning sophomore or chasing potential in a reclassified recruit, the Razorbacks’ signal-caller conversation will be a main topic at practices and local coffee shops alike.

So what should fans watch? How Jackson handles more reps, how Hill adapts to a new system, and how quickly the younger options absorb the playbook.

Spring practice reps always look clean in March. They mean something else entirely when the calendar flips.

Predicting starting quarterbacks in college football is like betting on whether it’ll rain at a tailgate — odds are fun, but unexpected twists are plentiful.

For Arkansas, the prediction right now is KJ Jackson will be the starter in 2026. That might change. It might not. Either way, it’s enough to keep Hog fans talking.