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Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson has had a season unlike any other in Razorbacks football history.
It may not be flashier than some. It may not have the numbers of some. But before the season, when offensive coordinator Kendal Briles said his goal for the first-year starter was to have a completion percentage above 70 and play efficiently with the ball, there was some incredulous reactions. He was either thought so lowly of, or, more likely, considered such an unknown quantity nationally, that one publication went so far as to rate him as the 14th best starting quarterback in the SEC, which, not coincidentally, has 14 teams.
Now, after leading Arkansas to an 8-4 record, Jefferson is among the nation’s elite.
Jefferson has a quarterback efficiency rating behind only five players in the whole of FBS. Two them – Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Young – are Heisman Trophy contenders. Georgia’s Stetson Bennett plays for the unquestioned No. 1 team in the nation, too.
Yet there is Jefferson, ranked sixth with a 168.68 rating. If the mark holds, he will break Brandon Allen’s single-season record of 166.48 set in 2015.
efferson completed 15 of 19 passes for 262 yards to improve his efficiency rating to 168.68, behind only Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall (207.95), Georgia’s Stetson Bennett (188.55), Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud (182.24), Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker (182.15) and Alabama’s Bryce Young (176.97). Jefferson is on pace to break Brandon Allen’s single-season record with a 166.48 passer rating in 2015.
It’s a wild thing to imagine considering not only his age and relative lack of experience entering the season, but also his first half against Rice, when some naysayers, burned by the Chad Morris era of quarterbacking, were calling for Jefferson to sit for freshman Malik Hornsby.
Yet Jefferson is here, with the regular season in the bag, a bowl game left to play and sitting with a completion percentage 67%, behind only Feleipe Franks’ 68.5% in school history. Jefferson’s touchdown-to-interception ratio is also third in the SEC, behind only Young and Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker.
“He has matured. He throws the long ball, very very well,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “Leaders usually do that kind of stuff (mature). They just do it a little bit more than the others.”