Potential, Promise at Hogs' Wide Receiver, but Nothing Solid
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Yeah, everybody knows Arkansas' KJ Jefferson has the experience and talent to be one of the top quarterbacks in the SEC, maybe the country. None of those plans will materialize if he can't find his "bail out" guy.
He had Treylon Burks for that the first three years he was with the Razorbacks. Last year that option was catching passes in Nashville for the Tennessee Titans. The record was 7-6 with a couple of struggle wins and four close losses. Nobody wants to look at that in context. Jefferson probably won't talk about it, either.
College quarterbacks don't do that. Besides the guys in the Hogs' crack sports information department having a collective stroke, the coaches probably wouldn't look at it very well, either. I've been at NFL practices and listened to quarterbacks openly complain this guy or that one couldn't catch or something. "Shoot me if I ever throw to him on that route again," one Hall of Fame quarterback said after a guy dropped a pass.
If Jefferson has that right now, it's not obvious who it might be, regardless of all these graphics putting spins on things. We're talking about the offense getting stuffed on first and second down, then scrambling around, dumping a pass to a receiver who then proceeds to get at least the first down if not a lot more. That's what Burks did.
The Hogs lost 67% of their receiving numbers from last year. There are some fresh faces coming in this year with a lot of potential and things people have seen that give them hope. It's a shaky way to get ready to start fall camp for coaches, though. Sam Pittman has said the last couple of weeks he feels good about it, which is about all he can say.
Don't look for any quick answers, though. Nobody will know if KJ has that guy who can be the go-to guy when they have to get a first down to keep the sticks moving and the offense on the field. All of the guesses about what new coordinator Dan Enos wants to do with Jefferson depends on the offense grinding out some drives, not necessarily counting on big plays.
Lots of the guys have talent and ability. They wouldn't be with the Hogs if the coaches hadn't seen something. Pittman and his staff weren't just looking for warm bodies to replace players who left. He's talking in painstaking detail about how they filled all the holes from last year.
But he's also said you don't really know what they have until they see them in a game situation. Pittman is probably referring more to SEC games than the opening scrimmage keeping score in Little Rock against Western Carolina.
Until the Hogs go to Baton Rouge on Sept. 23 to face LSU, no one is going to know for sure what this receiver group has. Until then everybody just has to hope the new additions live up to their potential.
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