Tag: arkansas razorbacks football

Former Arkansas QB KJ Jefferson breaks silence on booking for traffic violation

Former Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jefferson opens up about traffic violation, booking.

Former Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson presented himself to Fayetteville Police on Wednesday in an effort to process a misdemeanor traffic violation he received in 2023.

A report from WholeHogSports.com states that Jefferson was allegedly caught traveling at 113 mph in a 70-mph zone on May 18 of last year on Interstate 49 South in Washington County. Jefferson received a citation at 11:20 p.m. that night, the report states.

On Wednesday, Jefferson was booked into the Washington County Detention Center for reckless driving and for traveling more than 15 mph over the designated speed limit. He was released without bail shortly after he appeared for booking, according to detention center records referenced by WholeHogSports.

Jefferson took to Instagram on Wednesday to address the situation.

“I got a speeding ticket last year, in May, before the season,” Jefferson said Wednesday in a since-expired Instagram story. “Got a speeding ticket so I reported to court today. Today my court date… I ended up getting three days of community service. That’s why y’all see my mugshot and all that.

“But that’s what happened. It was a speeding ticket. I came back to Fayetteville only because I had court and to pay my fine and everything for speeding. I take full accountability for my actions, for what I did. But all that extra stuff about, ‘KJ did this’ and all these narratives y’all trying to paint, it’s not true, bro. I had a speeding ticket.”

Jefferson transferred to UCF after last season. UCF coach Gus Malzahn, a former high school coach in the Natural State and offensive coordinator for one season on Houston Nutt’s 2006 Razorbacks team, said in a statement that he and UCF had been aware of Jefferson’s situation prior to his booking.

“I have been fully aware of this situation that took place in May 2023 prior to his arrival at UCF. Since KJ has been here, he’s been a great leader and an exemplary member of our program,” Malzahn’s statement read.

Jefferson threw for 7,911 yards and combined for 88 touchdowns (67 passing) in parts of five seasons at Arkansas. He was the Hogs’ starting quarterback for the past three years.

New win projections for every SEC team for the 2024 college football season

SEC win projections for the 2024 College Football Season.

2024 will mark a new era of the ever-evolving landscape of college football. The Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns make the move to the SEC and face new challenges.

Though if you hear former Texas tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders talk about it, the SEC won’t be much of a challenge.

After a 2023 season that didn’t see an SEC team in the national championship game, there might be something to it. Georgia didn’t make the playoff and lost to an Alabama team that wasn’t necessarily the best of the Nick Saban era.

At the same time, the Georgia Bulldogs have earned the right to be the favorites in 2024. However, if you look at ESPN data analyst Jake Wimberly’s latest win projections for the inaugural season of the new-look 16-team conference, the Dawgs aren’t the favorite. It’s one of the newcomers.

Here’s a look at the projected win totals for the SEC in 2024.

SEC quarterback rankings ahead of 2024 spring football

Where does Jackson Arnold rank among SEC quarterbacks heading into spring ball?

As the SEC expands to 16 teams in 2024, the conference is stacked at the quarterback position. From former five-star prospects to 2024 Heisman contenders to intriguing transfer additions, there will be some fantastic quarterback play on display this fall in the SEC.

Seven of the last nine Heisman winners have come from Oklahoma and the SEC. Two of those seven were non-quarterbacks, DeVonta Smith and Derrick Henry.

Much of what will determine which teams emerge as SEC title and College Football Playoff contenders will be on the shoulders of the quarterbacks who will lead their team in 2024.

There are some quarterback competitions that need to take place, but here’s our pre-spring ball SEC quarterback rankings.

 

How do the Oklahoma Sooners compare to SEC teams in ESPN’s SP+ rating?

The Oklahoma Sooners are heading into a new era in the SEC and come in at No. 8 in the preseason SP+ rankings.

The Oklahoma Sooners had a really good season in 2023 as they bounced back from their 6-7 season in 2022 to win 10 games last year. Now, they prepare for a new era of Oklahoma football with the move to the [autotag]SEC[/autotag].

But they aren’t the only change coming to college football in 2024. The landscape as a whole has changed. The [autotag]Pac 12[/autotag] is essentially no more as everyone but Washington State and Oregon State left for the [autotag]Big 10[/autotag] or the [autotag]Big 12[/autotag].

With the new changes and the 2024 recruiting cycle coming to a close, it’s time to look at where Oklahoma ranks in ESPN data analyst Bill Connelly’s SP+ preseason rankings (subscription required).

For those that don’t know, Connelly releases a preseason SP+ ranking every February where he bases his projections on three primary factors weighted by their predictiveness. Those would be returning production, recent recruiting, and recent history.

So, let’s take a look at how Oklahoma stacks up against the rest of the SEC.

How could the SEC align its permanent rivals with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas?

If it went to a nine-game conference schedule, how could the permanent rivals line up for an expanded SEC.

The SEC is dealing with one of those good problems. As the conference prepares to expand to 16 schools with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas, SEC leadership is debating how to construct its schedule. In 2024 and most likely in 2025, the SEC will play eight conference games as they work out the details for what could come down the road.

Despite settling on eight games in the short term, the format that has received the most buzz has each team facing three permanent rivals each season as part of the nine-game conference schedule. The other six games would come from a rotation featuring the remaining 12 teams in the conference.

While there are some obvious permanent rivals for some teams, others aren’t so clear. It’s not an easy proposition, but it’s the one that would have each SEC team playing each other every two years.

This scheduling model is attractive because it sets up a school to play every other SEC program over a two-year cycle, with both home and away games against every other school over a four-year cycle. Year 1 will have a team’s three annual rivals plus six other SEC opponents. Those six are then rotated out for the rest of the conference in Year 2, allowing for games against all 15 conference foes. – Chip Patterson, CBS Sports

So, over a two-year span, Oklahoma will face every team in the conference. Over a four-year span, they will have hosted every team in the conference.

One of the complaints with the current format is the reality that an SEC may not play host to another for more than a decade. For example, Texas A&M hasn’t hosted Georgia despite being in the same conference for 10 seasons and only played the Bulldogs once in that time frame. The format getting the most consideration would fix that.

Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte spoke at a Longhorns town hall about the future of the SEC schedule. Del Conte mentioned that it’s a work in progress, but by 2026, the SEC could be at a nine-game conference schedule.

No format will leave everyone happy, but here’s a take on how the permanent rivals could align in the expanded SEC.

4-star WR Ashton Bethel-Roman signs with Texas A&M after de-committing from Arkansas

Bethel-Roman signed a national letter of intent to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks on Dec. 20 but he was released from the NLI on Feb. 1.

With national signing day underway, many prospects around the country have been choosing their future homes and Texas A&M signed a big-time playmaker today.

4-star wide receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman chose to continue his football career in Bryan College Station with the Aggies. On3 Sports national recruiting expert Sam Spiegelman predicted the signing on Tuesday and nailed it.

Bethel-Roman signed a national letter of intent to play for Arkansas on Dec. 20. However, he was released from the NLI agreement on Feb. 1 and immediately re-opened his recruitment.

The talented wideout stands at just over 6 feet and weighs 170 pounds. He is a future graduate of Ridge Point High School in Missouri City, Texas.

Bethel-Roman had 23 total offers and took four visits. He visited Aggieland on Dec. 15 and was primarily recruited by wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator Holmon Wiggins. He took three respective visits in June to the Razorbacks, Oregon and Texas Tech.

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Oklahoma Sooners in the top 5 of Josh Pate’s SEC Power Ratings

The Oklahoma Sooners are considered a top five program in the SEC according to Josh Pate.

The Oklahoma Sooners are heading into a new era of college football. Now, there are two mega conferences in college football with the additions the [autotag]SEC[/autotag] and Big 10 are making in 2024.

The Sooners elected to join the SEC, which sort of started this new wave of conference realignment. Much has been made about whether Oklahoma is “SEC ready”? Even after a 10-3 season, that question still looms over the program.

The program is heading in the right direction. They may not be ready to compete for an SEC championship in 2024, but you can tell with how they are recruiting, especially on the defensive side of the ball, they have a vision of what it’ll take to make this team ready for the week in, week out grind of the SEC.

While Oklahoma will be competitive in their inaugural season in 2024, 2025 is the year they’ll be serious title contenders. They’re still a young team and by 2025 a lot of this young talent will be seasoned.

But what about next season? How well can the Sooners do in Year 1? CBSSports’ and the Late Kick Show’s Josh Pate shared his SEC Power Ratings heading into the 2024 season Sunday night. In it, he values a rolling three-year snapshot of on-field performance, talent acquisition, and stability resource pool. Given all of that, he feels the Sooners are the fifth-best SEC program heading into 2024.

That means Oklahoma is probably around an 8-4 or 9-3 team in 2024, which is what I would have them at. And with the 12-team playoff incoming, there’s a possibility that puts them in the College Football Playoff in 2024.

I do think the LSU Tigers are a little overvalued because last year they were so bad defensively and were carried by their offense. Well, gone is Heisman winner Jayden Daniels and their star receiver Malik Nabors. Both are first round picks in 2024.

Here’s a look at how the SEC stacks up, according to Josh Pate.

Way too early 2024 SEC Football Power Rankings

The Sooners and Longhorns are making the jump to the SEC in 2024, so where do they land in our way-too-early power rankings?

In 2024, college football will look like nothing we’ve ever seen. Conference realignment did plastic surgery to the game we’ve grown up with.

The Pac-12 is essentially gone as Oregon, USC, Washington, and UCLA move to the Big Ten. The Big 12 added Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah. Stanford and Cal are off to the ACC, along with SMU getting a promotion from the AAC. The SEC is adding Texas and Oklahoma.

The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams, coming off its most competitive four-team version.

All of this is happening in 2024.

It’s a new era of college football. For the SEC, the Sooners and Longhorns are coming off of double-digit win seasons and Texas made the playoff. But how do they stack up against their future SEC counterparts?

Here’s a look at our way-too-early SEC power rankings.

Former Texas A&M sophomore WR Jordan Anthony transfers to Arkansas

Sophomore wideout Jordan Anthony announced via X on Tuesday afternoon his decision to play football and run track at Arkansas next season.

Former Texas A&M sophomore wide receiver Jordan Anthony has found his new home in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

Anthony announced his decision via X on Tuesday afternoon to remain in the SEC and play for the Arkansas Razorbacks next season.

The sophomore wideout let all naysayers know while shouting out his beloved mother in the post. Anthony reunites with former Aggies offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, who returned to Arkansas in the same role following the firing of former Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher.

Per ESPN college football senior writer Pete Thamel, Anthony plans to play football and run track for the Razorbacks. He previously did so at Kentucky before transferring to Bryan-College Station in 2023.

Anthony appeared in four games for the Aggies last year, allowing him to take a redshirt season. He transfers to Arkansas with three years of collegiate eligibility remaining.

The Tylertown High School graduate is 5-foot-10, 160 pounds and was a 4-star recruit coming out of Mississippi in 2022. Anthony entered the portal again on Dec. 23 “due to family health issues.”

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Breaking: 4-star DL Kendall Jackson commits to Texas A&M after flipping from Miami and Florida

Johnny Manziel isn’t walking through that door but Aggies coach Mike Elko has been making money moves since coming home to College Station.

Johnny Manziel isn’t walking through that door but new Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko has been making money moves since coming home to College Station.

Elko’s latest move is a big one. 4-star defensive lineman recruit Kendall “Hollywood” Jackson committed to the Aggies on Tuesday afternoon.

“I want to thank my coaches, coach Wade and coach Bell, all my coaches. I appreciate y’all for these last four years. Y’all have been an integral part of my life today,” Jackson said Tuesday at a news conference held at Buchholz High School. “With that being said, I did post that I won’t be signing with Miami today. For the next three to four years, I’m taking my talents to Texas A&M.”

On July 12, the Gainsville, Fla. native initially committed to stay home and attend the University of Florida. He decommitted from the Gators on Dec. 2. One week later, he committed to the University of Miami.

Five minutes before holding a news conference to announce his decision Tuesday, Jackson announced via X that he would not be signing with the Hurricanes after all. He is 6-foot-4, 250 pounds and has 19 total offers.

Jackson’s taken four visits so far to Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky and Miami. Elko hired Sean Spencer from Florida as the new Texas A&M defensive line coach on Dec. 3. The hiring appears to be already paying major dividends with the commitment of Jackson this week.

The college football early signing period begins Wednesday and ends Friday.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Shaun on Twitter: @Shaun_Holkko.