Razorbacks' OC Likes Quarterback Numbers But History Says Pump Brakes

Tim Cramsey had been waiting for somebody to ask.

When a reporter brought up the quarterback competition to start Wednesday's press conference, Arkansas's first-year offensive coordinator was so giddy you wonder if there wasn't a secret wager somewhere.

"I knew that would be the first question out of the gate," he said with a laughm then he talked about the two-man battle between AJ Hill and KJ Jackson. "I love it They've done a good job."

We've been down this road before. Every spring across college football, somebody's quarterback looks like the next great thing in practice.

Fans start dreaming. Message boards light up. Some of those guys, the ones certain observers wanted to slot into Heisman conversations before August, weren't even starting by the midpoint of their own season.

Spring is spring. It's shorts and helmets and controlled environments and it doesn't always translate.

So file what Cramsey said Wednesday under "encouraging," but nobody is handing out any guarantees.

The Numbers Cramsey Shared

Through 13 practices under new head coach Ryan Silverfield, both AJ Hill and fellow quarterback KJ Jackson have been completing better than 70% of their passes across 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 work.

Quarterbacks coach Mitch Stewart said on April 1 the number he used was 65%. The Hogs are above that, at least now.

"Neither one's perfect, but there has been improvement every single day," Cramsey said. "I'm going off AJ and KJ now, they're plus 70 and that includes 7-on-7 and team periods, scrimmage periods of course."

He got specific. Cramsey was careful to note those figures include team and scrimmage periods and not just the softer passing situations where numbers naturally inflate.

"Any 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 we keep them separate. I think AJ's sitting at 73, KJ's sitting right around 71.5 or something like that," Cramsey said. "So they're doing a good job of taking completions."

That's some good information. It's also practice. The defense isn't game-planning. Nobody's studying film on these quarterbacks the way an SEC defensive coordinator will in October.

The speed of the game changes along with the pressure level. The moment changes. We simply don't know yet if what's happening on the practice field in April is going to hold up when it counts.

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback AJ Hill during spring practice drills. | Nilsen Roman-allHOGS Images

No Leader Yet and That's Likely Intentional

Don't expect Cramsey to name a starter before fall camp. He made that crystal clear.

"To say there's a leader in the clubhouse, I won't say that," he said. "Just like we say, we're going to be talking about it in August."

Cramsey's not handing a starting job to anyone before the competition runs its course and Saturday's Red-White spring game at 2 p.m. gives both quarterbacks one more live stage to perform on.

He'll split the offense evenly for the game, keeping the evaluation as fair as possible.

The longer this competition stays open, the better it probably is for the Hogs. But it also means nobody outside that program knows what they actually have yet.

Honestly, neither do the coaches. Not really. Not until real games start.

Depth Sounds Good on Paper

Cramsey widened the picture Wednesday and talked through depth at multiple positions. The picture he painted was mostly positive with all the same caveats.

"About eight in the offensive line, maybe a ninth in the offensive line, I feel pretty good about," Cramsey said. "Running back world I feel good about 3½, maybe 4 guys there. … And then we're about 6-7 deep in the receiver room. So I feel really good about them."

Younger players help fill out those depth charts in partial ways, giving the Razorbacks more options than raw numbers might suggest.

"I feel very confident that these two quarterbacks, we can put them in a game, we can put a winning game plan around them," Cramsey said. "So I feel good about the depth of it."

That's encouraging. It's also what offensive coordinators tend to say in April. The ones who say otherwise usually don't last long in the business.

What matters is whether that depth holds when somebody goes down in game three of a real season — and we won't know that answer for months.

Communication Was Early Concern

Cramsey was candid about where things started and where they've come since.

"I think they've done a good job of communicating, which is the most important thing early in spring," Cramsey said. "I thought it was something I was concerned about because we were in a certain protection and the running backs thought we were in a different protection."

He credited the quarterbacks for cleaning it up over the last nine or 10 practices and said communication was the thing he most wanted to see improve heading into spring break.

"To me, the communication back and forth, it all falls on the quarterback to make sure we're on the same page," Cramsey said. "But I thought that improved on a daily basis."

Progress on communication matters. It's also something that can unravel fast when a defensive end is in a quarterback's face and the play clock is winding down in a hostile road environment.

Having clean communication in April is the floor, not the ceiling.

Ball Security Still a Work in Progress

The Hogs haven't been careless with the football, but they haven't been perfect either.

In other words, there have been turnovers and it's more than one person.

The staff shouts "OTB" — own the ball — throughout practice. They are trying to drive home the importance of keeping possessions.

"Well, yeah, they got at least one, so that's way more than I wanted to give up," Cramsey said.

He pointed specifically to the quarterbacks as an area needing more discipline with the football.

"There were times, though, with the quarterbacks, I think we've got to be smarter with the ball and live to see a second-and-10 than try to force it in there on first down," Cramsey said.

Ball security issues in April tend to get worse, not better, when stakes rise. That's something to keep an eye on when they start keeping score.

New OC on the Block 🏈

🎥 Go inside spring practice with OC Tim Cramsey mic’d up now on Hogs+ pic.twitter.com/8Ro9D0vFBQ
— Hogs Plus (@HogsPlus) April 8, 2026

Cramsey's Own Honest Reality Check

To his credit, Cramsey himself offered probably the most honest perspective of the day. It's worth taking seriously.

"We're nowhere near ready to play a football game right now, but we don't have to be," Cramsey said very directly. "We've got to be ready come the end of August."

That should be at the center of any conversation about spring practice numbers. Two more spring practices remain.

A full summer of organized team activities is ahead. An entire fall camp will follow.

There's a long way between a 73% completion rate in April and what this offense actually looks like when the Razorbacks open the season for real.

The coordinator who came over from Memphis with Silverfield simply believes in what he's building. The pieces he's described sound like a program that's been thoughtfully assembled. Jackson and Hill both sound like they're competing hard and improving daily.

I've watched college football long enough to know that spring darlings don't always make it to November. There's even been quarterbacks who looked unstoppable in Red-White games and handing over the starting job before October.

Coordinators have talked for decades about receiver room depth that evaporated the moment the schedule got serious.

None of that means Cramsey's wrong.

It just means we don't know yet and that's exactly where things probably should be in April.

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