Playing Two Quarterbacks Not on Pittman's Ignore List
It was just a question that was asked almost as an aside near the end of Sam Pittman's press conference Thursday.
"Would you play more than one quarterback just in the normal flow of the game?"
Most of the time the answer is no. Pittman's answer was, more or less, straddling the fence but once again Malik Hornsby's name came up in an answer when he wasn't the specific question.
"Yeah, I think I would," Pittman said. "If I felt like they earned it I know I would. Malik certainly brings some similarities (to starter KJ Jefferson) but some speed when he's in the game."
A lot more speed, which Pittman has mentioned on numerous occasions in fall camp. Nobody has said a whole lot negative about Jefferson, but there is an awful lot of talk about the backup.
That's not completely shocking, either. The No. 2 quarterback for the Razorbacks is often the most popular man on the team, even when they are winning.
Never forget, Bill Montgomery had just taken the Hogs to the brink of a national championship in 1969 but struggled early in the 1970 opener against Stanford.
Joe Ferguson, in his first game, whipped the Hogs downfield until they got inside the 20 and Frank Broyles put Montgomery back in to have some experience near the goal.
Fans in War Memorial Stadium booed and there were questions after that.
At all levels of football, the backup quarterback is the knee-jerk reaction fans have when things aren't going the way they think they should.
The amount of attention Hornsby has gotten in fall camp has been, well, intriguing.
"(Hornsby) is a good pocket passer," Pittman said. "But we can roll with him and hopefully he gets to the outside and has two options to run it or throw. He's a very good runner."
His appearances last year started against Auburn when he was put in near the goal and it went backwards. The Tigers were figuring he was going to run.
"If we didn't think he could score we wouldn't have done it," Pittman said. "In hindsight he probably wasn't ready for that. He's ready for that now."
A lot of fans want to see that, too.
