Arkansas is rolling into a brutal Week 3 test against No. 2 Georgia with the same man under center.
Head coach Ryan Silverfield said Monday that KJ Jackson will remain the Razorbacks’ starting quarterback when Arkansas hosts the Bulldogs on Saturday, even after a shaky opening two games that have fallen well short of expectations.
“We plan on having KJ as our starting quarterback, but I've got great faith in everybody in that quarterback room,” Silverfield said. “I certainly do, and they're going to continue to improve.”
Jackson’s latest outing came in Saturday’s 43-10 loss to No. 17 Utah, where he opened with a decent first drive and helped Arkansas get a field goal.
He was 8 of 12 for 72 yards early, but the night unraveled fast from there. Jackson finished with 139 passing yards, a 41 percent completion rate, and only six completions on his final 22 attempts.
Silverfield said the quarterback simply didn’t meet the standard Arkansas needs.
“I thought the quarterback play was not to the standard that we expect and not to the standard to win football games,” Silverfield said. “KJ knows good and well that he did some things that can't happen.”
The mistakes have piled up early in the season. Jackson, who didn’t throw an interception in his college career in 2024 or 2025, has now thrown one in each of Arkansas’ first two games.
The first came against North Alabama on a red-zone throw at the end of the first half. The second came Saturday on an overthrown screen pass.
Silverfield also noted that Jackson could have been picked off against North Alabama and had two more near misses against Utah.
Even with the rough finish against Utah, Silverfield said there was no real discussion about going to AJ Hill earlier. Hill entered with Arkansas down 43-3 and ended up directing the Razorbacks’ lone touchdown drive of the night, though the score came on a tipped pass to Ismael Cisse that should’ve been intercepted. Hill went 8 of 14 for 105 yards and the touchdown.
“Probably not any earlier,” Silverfield said. “I think we saw the adjustments that KJ had made the week before after halftime.
Kind of just OK, go back, take a deep breath. We knew we had to kick off and say, hey, these are the things that have got to get fixed.
“Obviously, we weren't able to, but there was never that discussion at halftime. Hey, let's go and switch. And so the timing of it was going to the fourth at that time, kind of OK, hey, is this the right opportunity now to to see if we can get the offensive spark?”
Silverfield said he has talked through the issues with Jackson, and he pointed to the quarterback’s response after the first game as proof that improvement is possible.
“The biggest difference was that at halftime of Game 1, him saying, ‘Yup, I understand the mistakes I made,’ got it fixed and had a clean second half. And then this game, just not making the best throws, not making the best decisions with the ball.
Even on the screen pass, maybe the touch on the ball that got intercepted. It’s just sitting back and saying, ‘Okay, learn from these things.’
So what you want hope is that every opportunity, every experience he gets on the field, he’s going to continue to improve. Again, the good news is he’s a smart, intelligent, hard-working young man who I think we’re going to see the right strides and right direction.”
Arkansas will need those strides in a hurry. Jackson hasn’t had much help from his offensive line in pass protection, and the running game hasn’t done much to create easier throws.
Silverfield still made it clear the job stays with Jackson for now, but the pressure only gets heavier with Georgia coming to town on Sept. 19.
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