You can tell me about Ryan Mallett.
You can tell me about Tyler Wilson.
You can go on and on about Matt Jones and Clint Stoerner.
I will listen. I will hear argument. I will look at numbers and game film and every other thing you bring to the table.
Barring some kind of miracle, I’ll come to the same conclusion I was leaning toward before the 2024 season even began.
“KJ Jefferson is the best quarterback in Arkansas history.”
One thing I wasn’t anticipating writing before the season began, though?
“And, if I were him, I would finish my career somewhere other than Arkansas.”
Jefferson’s Arkansas career may have come to end Friday night. He injured his leg in the second quarter against Missouri and did not return. In a season in which the Razorbacks allowed 47 sacks – the most ever, according to the immediately available records – Jefferson was hurt when he was tackled. In a Jeffersonian twist, he was hurt when he was tackled after a 22-yard run.
The man with Matt Jones’ legs, Brandon Allen’s guts and Ryan Mallett’s make-it-happen mentality, Jefferson set Arkansas records for passing yards and passing touchdowns for a career in an otherwise mediocre individual season and a poor team season. Only Jones has more yards rushing from a Razorbacks quarterback.
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman would be wise, as would Arkansas’ NIL crew, to try everything possible to get Jefferson to return for a sixth year with the Hogs. But after a 4-8 record in which he was battered and beaten and tossed aside by the people who should have been praising him, Jefferson’s best interests lie elsewhere.
Seriously, head over to Razorbacks Wire and read what a majority of fans post about him. It’s shameful. Oh, they love him when he’s running people over. But when Arkansas loses, he should be benched for Jacolby Criswell, they say.
Jefferson is, as the phrase, goes, built different. Arkansas didn’t do him any favors on the field, nor off it, almost never bringing him into post-game press conferences. Unless, of course, Jefferson had something to say negative about the program, which is a distinct possibility, albeit a longshot one.
To be so casually mistreated, like he was just another number, just another player, I’d sure be sick of it, anyway. And as the plan even before the Missouri game was likely that Jefferson was finished in Fayetteville, it’s hard to imagine anything that happened Friday changing his mind.
So whether’s it Mississippi State or Southern Miss. or literally anywhere else, Jefferson should go where he will be appreciated for a final season of college football. Assuming he wants it.
He surely deserved better in Fayetteville.