Razorbacks Fans Making Up Reasons to Not Believe in Jackson at Quarterback

There seems to be a narrative building that people are concerned about the Arkansas quarterback situation.

The battle between the pseudo-incumbent KJ Jackson and AJ Hill apparently hasn't been up to the Drew Bledsoe vs. Tom Brady standard they were expecting. The biggest complaint issued is no one has seen either quarterback prove he can throw for more than 20 yards against their own teammates, much less against SEC defenses.

There's just one issue with this complaint. Everyone has already seen Jackson complete numerous passes over 20 yards in actual competition as a Razorback.

His first pass when he started against Missouri went to Rohan Jones for 26 yards and more than 20 of that went through the air. Then, on his next drive, Jackson led the Razorbacks on a 73-yard drive that ended in what was technically a 16-yard touchdown pass to O'Mega Blake, but it was to the back of the end zone, meaning people just watched Jackson throw yet another 20+ yard pass for a completion against an SEC defense.

During the same game where he keeps switching with Taylen Green, who can't move the offense, Jackson leads another long drive against Missouri in the third quarter that features a 22-yard pass over the middle to Raylen Sharpe to get into Tigers territory.

When Jackson was on the field, the Hogs moved the ball. He led all of the long drives and it was easy to see that Arkansas would have won if Bobby Petrino had committed to Jackson the entire game, but he didn't have the heart to officially bench Green, thus another Arkansas loss.

Jackson went 11-of-17 with a touchdown and zero interceptions in the effort. That's in contrast to the 6-of-13 effort by Green for 59 yards and no touchdowns for a 42.5 QBR.

In a single 92-yard touchdown drive against Texas the week before, Jackson had a 16-yard pass to Sharpe, a 16-yard pass to CJ Brown and a 21-yard pass to Rohan Jones back-to-back-to-back. On that same drive, he went back to Sharpe for 21 yards and threaded an 8-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Platt in incredibly tight coverage.

Earlier in the game Jackson had a 27-yard pass to Jones and a 26-yard pass to Mike Washington, although, to be fair, the Washington pass didn't require throwing it over 20 yards because the future NFL running back did a lot of the work running after the catch.

Jackson initially came on with 7:05 left in the third quarter following an injury by Green suffered with the Hogs down 31-20. The red-shirt freshman led long drives on all four possessions he had to close the game, including three scoring drives.

The final drive he led was the 92 yarder. Yet, somehow people claim they haven't seen Jackson prove he can be successful as the Hogs' quarterback because they don't see him throw the ball for 20+ yards. In addition to all of the 20+ yard throws referenced here were a ton of passes that went 12-19 yards, most in the tiniest of windows.

Jackson also had a 12-yard touchdown run with 7:53 left in the game that will easily remind Arkansas fans of another KJ who used to run the ball at quarterback as he ran by and through Longhorns, tossing them here and there over the final eight yards.

He did what Petrino asked him to do in a very complicated offense and he scored left and right on SEC defenses proving himself. Of course, he had already shown his promise in non-SEC play.

Against Arkansas State, in a bit of a preview of the 92-yard drive against Texas, Jackson led the Hogs on a 99-yard touchdown drive. He had a series where he hit tight end Andreas Paaske for 14 yards, followed by a 41-yard pass to Jones, which opened things up for an 18-yard run by Rodney Hill, and then a 15-yard pass to Platt, completing his tight end tri-fecta in only four plays.

He also had a 27-yard touchdown pass to Washington against Alabama A&M in literally the first game of last season. So, everyone claiming they doubt Arkansas will have success of any kind because they haven't seen Jackson prove he can complete anything over 20 yards is either a revisionist who has managed to mentally erase last season where he improved so much as the year progressed, or they just stubbornly refuse to acknowledge anything positive in regard to Razorbacks football.

These are likely the same people who reimagine multiple 7-6 seasons as losing seasons rather than winning seasons. In their world the misery has been imagined to epic proportions and will continue this year despite facts.

Jackson has already proven himself competent against SEC competition. He outshined Green late in the year in a much more complicated offense than what he is going to be asked to run under Ryan Silverfield, although it's possible some fans had stopped watching at that point, so they didn't get to see it.

His hardest adjustment will be having his brain accept less complicated concepts after multiple years in Petrino's offense. Once he does that and masters what offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey wants to do, Arkansas will be in great hands with Jackson.

So, scroll up and watch the videos. See what he can do.

Then spend the summer knowing how efficient and successful Jackson can be against the SEC, whether he's throwing to the boundary for 15 yards or over the middle for 20+. It will all be fine in Fayetteville as far as quarterback is concerned.

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