Razorbacks May Not Know Their QB Answer Until 'Bullets Are Flying'

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Aside from a defensive lineman gobbling up either of the two players in the starting quarterback battle, Arkansas Razorbacks coach Mitch Stewart and the offensive staff have thrown everything imaginable at them.

Whether it's the blistering heat, pushing the limits of the speakers of the Walker Pavilion to nearly 100 decibels, or coaches screaming into their headsets, KJ Jackson and AJ Hill have faced just about every obstacle Arkansas can manufacture this offseason.

"The first one, that's probably the hardest thing. It's the decision, right? When you can't simulate exactly them getting hit, whatever the case, being live," Stewart said Friday evening. "Because at the end of the day, unless one of them completely separates himself, if they stay neck-and-neck, then it turns into one of two things."

Following spring action, it looked like Jackson had pulled ahead of Hill, but coach Ryan Silverfield maintained the opinion that the race was wide open going into fall camp.

Both quarterbacks have shown flashes during the portions of fall camp open to media, but those limited viewing periods hardly provide enough evidence to declare one ahead of the other. Whatever separation coaches may be seeing could be happening when reporters aren't around.

But that is only during media viewing times. Maybe there is something everyone else isn't getting to see.

If this race for QB1 is truly as close as coaches are leading it on to be, then a decision will come down to one of two things.

"Either the [quarterback battle] becomes a very analytical decision, where you're looking at it and going, "Well, his completion percentage was this much more, and his interceptions were this much less," whatever," Stewart said. "Or it turns into a gut feeling.

"That's kind of what makes it tough when you get in that situation, just the decision-making process of, "Okay, who's going to be the guy? Who can lead the team?"

The hardest part of practice will always be about giving it as close to a game-like feel as possible, but it's still hard to replicate. It's tough to simulate pressure packages due to the threat of injury.

Perhaps it's allowing the defense to bring the heat, but still find ways not to obliberate a quarterback. That's got to be good for the offensive line to callous their minds when going through protections.

Coaching might seem easy from the couch, but trying to figure this thing out in an abbreviated period is likely the toughest thing to go through during camp. Even Stewart believes it could take the season opener to figure out who the best fit at quarterback will be.

"Shoot, we've laughed. It always comes up when you have a quarterback battle," Stewart said. "It's like, 'Just make them all live for a period,' half the time in fun. Because you don't want to ever be the idiot that puts them out there and does it and somebody gets hurt or something like that. But that would be the easiest thing, right?

"Just go out there and see who does it when the bullets are flying. You almost want to dupe them into it. Go in there and say, 'Hey, y'all better read it because you're live,' and then go over to the defense and go, 'Don't hit them.' But that's the hardest thing that you go into."

Even if this battle does play out into the season, it's not the worst thing that can happen either. There's other ones going on around the country that remain unsolved, including SEC teams like Alabama, Florida, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee.

With Arkansas' season opener against FCS member North Alabama, it gives coaches a luxury of carefully evaluating each quarterback with game reps. But need to be confident once a decision is made because things won't get easier going to Utah in Week Two.

Should the battle be solved during camp, though, Stewart is hoping that the Arkansas coaches have done enough throughout the offseason to prepare either quarterback for what they are going to face.

"A little bit of it is you're going to figure it out on the fly in that first game, especially in the first big atmosphere," Stewart said. "You just hope that you've done enough to callous them up in camp and put them in enough situations where you've really stressed them as much as you can so that, in a way, game day is a little bit easier for them. That's what the hope is.

"I will say, we try our best to do that around here. Whether it's practicing in the afternoon in the heat of the day, because that's a mental fatigue on you, whether it's crowd noise all the time, all the situations we've been talking about. We constantly don't let them be very comfortable out there."

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