Arkansas 1 of Only 3 SEC Teams with Multiple Nominees for Best College Football Player
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson and running back Raheim "Rocket" Sanders have been named to the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award.
The Razorback backfield tandem join Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, along with 81 other players on the preseason watch list for best player in college football. Arkansas is one of 16 schools to feature multiple nominees. Only LSU and South Carolina can also make such a claim in the SEC.
Barring injury, Jefferson is in line to take down numerous school passing records in his fifth season with the Razorbacks. He recently set about adding distinction for himself by becoming the first Razorback quarterback since 2012 to earn preseason All-SEC accolades.
Jefferson is currently in the program's Top 10 for completions (436 – 7th), yards (5816 – 7th), touchdown passes (48 – 6th), 300-yard passing games (5 – 3rd), total plays (1028 – 6th), total yards (7245 – 5th) and touchdown responsibility (67 – 4th). He also pushed for single-season records for completion percentage his first two seasons as a starter with .673 in 2021 that placed him second all-time only to surpass it with a .680 percentage in 2022.
While Jefferson took a huge swing at the record books last season, so did Sanders. He posted the fourth most yards by an Arkansas running back in school history with 1,443 on the ground, resulting in 10 touchdowns. Much like Jefferson, he also became the first Razorback at his position to earn a specific preseason honor since 2012, earning preseason first-team All-SEC by the Associated Press and USA Today.
More importantly for Arkansas fans, he's just the second Razorback to ever run for 1,400+ yards and return to school the following year. Only Darren McFadden, who ran for a then school record 1,647 yards in 2006 before breaking his own record in 2007 with 1,830 yards had done it before. Sanders finished second in the SEC in rushing, barely falling behind Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins after an injury in the Liberty Bowl kept Sanders from overtaking first place. Judkins finished with 1,467 yards, only 24 more than Sanders.
(Razorback Communications contributed to this story)
AI LOOK AT RAZORBACKS SHOW A SURPRISINGLY DIFFERENT PROJECTION FOR THE OUTCOME
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