The panic was very real. It’s all but forgotten now, of course. But in the moment, during the first half of Arkansas’ season opener against Rice last year, Razorbacks Twittersphere was in despair about KJ Jefferson’s ability to run the Arkansas offense.
Funny now, isn’t it?
Jefferson looked the part of the man who finished last year 2,676 yards passing with 21 touchdowns during Arkansas’ first scrimmage of the fall Saturday.
“Ol’ KJ was accurate today, wasn’t he?” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman rhetorically asked at the end of the presser Saturday.
Jefferson completed 67.3% of passes last year, good for fourth in the SEC. The only Arkansas quarterback the last decade-plus to complete that high a percentage was the one who came before him, Feleipe Franks.
The connection? Both had Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator. Now that Jefferson is a year into his starting gig and more comfortable, Briles could perhaps open the offense a bit more and take advantage of Jefferson’s arm.
Saturday was just a scrimmage, but it was a good start to that end.
“I feel like I did have a great day today,” Jefferson said. “Some things I do need to get better, go over small details and stuff like that. And as an offensive unit, I feel like we had a pretty explosive day today. We came out, took shots early, but just got to clean up the little mistakes and the little details, all the penalties that we had.”