Jackson Isn't Looking Over His Shoulder At Hill Despite Struggles At QB

FAYETTEVILLE — Despite a quarterback battle that lasted throughout fall camp and a QB carousel between KJ Jackson and AJ Hill against Georgia on Sept. 19, Jackson is firmly the No. 1 shot caller for Arkansas moving forward.

Head coach Ryan Silverfield said after Arkansas' 34-7 loss to Texas A&M that there was no thought of bringing Hill into the game to relieve Jackson, who threw his fourth interception of the season on Arkansas' opening drive against the Aggies. Offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey echoed that sentiment on Tuesday.

"You know, you can't allow your quarterback, or force a quarterback to be looking over his shoulder all the time," Cramsey said. "But there is some urgency in that room in general. So he's not looking over his shoulder, no."

Arkansas Razorbacks offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey observes his unit during pregame warmups against Tulsa. | Nilsen Roman, Hogs on SI Images

Still, Jackson has to play much better over the next seven games if Arkansas is going to have a chance to score an SEC win this season.

In the Razorbacks' three games against Power Four competition this season, he's only completed 47-of-86 passes (54.7 percent) for 462 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He hasn't thrown for more than 250 yards in any of those games.

Every team that won this past weekend, the quarterback played well," Cramsey said. "Every team that didn't have success this weekend, there's a lot of work that the quarterback needs to do. That goes NFL. That goes college. That goes high school football.

"So we need to be better in that room every single week. We need to be efficient. We need to trust our reads. We need to be ABC, 123, and that's got to be pivotal this week with how quick these guys get on you on the D-Line and their ability to bring a e guy here or there on top of you. "

Tennessee's defense leads the country in sacks through five games, and Jackson will need plenty of help from his offensive line to keep him upright on Saturday afternoon.

Part of that help will also be ensuring the football gets to him cleanly. There were multiple poor snaps from center Caden Kitler against Texas A&M that forced Jackson to take time gathering the ball before he could either hand it off or drop back to throw.

"It's been discussed and something we can't have," Cramsey said. "We got to put everybody in a perfect situation every single play, and then the snap is something... if you get a low snap, [KJ] gets his eyes off his initial read. It affects you."

Kickoff between Arkansas and No. 15 Tennessee inside Razorback Stadium is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, with coverage on the SEC Network and the Razorback Sports Network.

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