Arkansas entered Saturday still waiting for one of its quarterbacks to separate, and the latest practice didn’t deliver the clean answer the Razorbacks wanted.
KJ Jackson, the longtime favorite to land the starting job, had the kind of uneven day that puts his biggest issue right back in the spotlight. Arkansas QB coach Mitch Stewart said Friday that neither Jackson nor AJ Hill was losing the battle, and Saturday’s work backed that up in the least helpful way possible: neither quarterback looked sharp enough to seize control.
Jackson’s trouble showed up in the areas Stewart identified as his biggest weakness - consistency, especially on easy throws Arkansas has to make. He missed on several passes, including an ugly overthrow on a short curl route to Antonio Jordan, a 6-6 target with a huge catch radius. Jackson sailed that one well over Jordan’s head.
He also overthrew Chris Marshall on a go route to the end zone.
Jackson did connect for a touchdown to Monte Harrison, but that score owed plenty to Harrison, a 31-year-old junior, who made an impressive catch on a ball that was a bit high.
Hill wasn’t clean either. During the portion of practice open to the media - and during a non-shooting period - he overthrew a deep sideline throw to former track star turned wide receiver Jelani Watkins and also missed on throws to Jamari Hawkins and Ismael Cisse.
That doesn’t mean either quarterback was disastrous. Both Hill and Jackson completed a few passes, and the media only saw part of the practice, so there’s no way to know how the rest of the session went.
Still, with Arkansas only three weeks from the start of its 2026 campaign and a starter not yet named, the inconsistency is hard to ignore. Stewart said Friday that everything these quarterbacks do is being watched, and Saturday’s errant throws came with no pressure in front of them in a relatively relaxed setting.
There’s no need to sound the alarm. But it was not a good practice for either quarterback, and it didn’t look like the day anyone won the job.
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