Andy’s Recap: Jefferson Has Grown Into Leading Hogs Back to Top 25
Arkansas was as good Saturday night as Texas was bad.
Unfortunately, though, it takes longer than two weeks to handicap a team's season. The Razorbacks made a ton of big plays, though, and showed this is a team trending up.
For the first time since 2016, the Hogs are ranked (24th in the coaches' poll, 20th in the Associated Press and 18th in the ESPN Power Index).
READ MORE: Arkansas ranked for first time since 2016
The Longhorns were almost too bad to handicap. Hudson Card was so bad at quarterback you had to wonder what Steve Sarkisian saw in practice to start the redshirt freshman and ride with him for three quarters.
On the flip side, quarterback KJ Jefferson played so well for the Hogs you get the idea now we haven't seen much of him in fall camp because Sam Pittman would just as soon everybody else not be singing his praises.
Sorry, Sam, but trying to keep the big guy from Mississippi under wraps is gone. He's now being hyped as the next Cam Newton and there were times he looked a lot like the former Heisman winner in 2010.
Jefferson can run. He's gotten smarter about it, too, although he will still lower his head and try to run over people like he did as a true freshman. LSU probably knocked some common sense into that idea in 2019.
READ MORE: Breaking down Hogs' dominating win over ’Horns
Pittman and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles didn't have a lot of faith in Jefferson until the Missouri game last year when it started to look like he was going to have to step in at the last minute and replace Feleipe Franks for the last game of the year.
After that game, Pittman and Briles gave him a vote of confidence. Basically, they decided they were going to give him every chance for success.
Jefferson, who grew up a lot in a year of soaking up everything he could from Franks, now may be ready to play at the high level many expected when he was recruited.
He and the offense basically made the Longhorns quit in the middle of the third quarter of Saturday night's 40-21 romp that was nowhere as close as the final score sounds.
Texas was so bad Card missed wide open deep routes four times. Arkansas' defenders were nearly on the other side of town on those plays.
READ MORE: Pittman on loud crowd at Razorback Stadium affecting game
But that's not the offense's problem. Their job is to make plays and keep making them.
The Hogs could have added a late score, but Sarkisian wasn't using his timeouts and that's the football equivalent of waving a white flag.
"That's not my style," Pittman said when asked about going for another score.
He didn't need it. Besides, he's got a different issue now.
Pittman has to keep a Top 25 team in there longer than a couple of weeks.
Follow Andy on Twitter @andyhsports.
