Arkansas defense looks improved, but offensive questions remain

Arkansas closed out the spring football schedule Saturday with a scrimmage at Razorback Stadium, and the defense walked away with most of the headlines.

Five sacks, tight coverage and a pick-six made for an encouraging afternoon on that side of the ball. But before anyone gets too excited, it’s worth pumping the brakes a little.

The offense couldn’t do much of anything, which makes it really difficult to know what the defense actually proved.

When a stop unit dominates a scrimmage where the opposing offense looks like it’s running into a wall with nobody home on the other side, the grades get complicated fast.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t real positives for the Hogs Saturday. There were. It just means the enthusiasm probably needs a ceiling on it until we see this defense tested by something more threatening than itself.

The Red finished with 14 points and the White with 13. Of the White’s two scores, only one came from the offense.

The other was a pick-six from JUCO defensive back transfer Nsongbeh Ginyui, who read a busted route and took it to the house.

In a very real sense, the offense handed the defense a gift and the defense cashed it in. That’s not a knock on Ginyui — making plays is making plays — but it’s context that matters when you’re trying to evaluate an entire unit.

Quarterbacks struggled to move ball consistently

The four quarterbacks who played combined to go just 23-for-43 through the air. KJ Jackson and AJ Hill handled the bulk of the snaps as they continue to compete for the starting job heading into fall.

Jackson finished 9-for-13 for 129 yards and a touchdown, which was the most efficient day of the two. Hill went 9-for-17 for 95 yards and threw an interception.

That’s not a lot of production. The longest play of the scrimmage was a 65-yard touchdown strike from Jackson to CJ Brown, which skewed his yardage total upward considerably.

Strip that one play out and the passing game looked pretty thin across the board.

Wide receiver Antonio Jordan made a couple of nice grabs — one for roughly 20 yards on the right sideline and another for 17 yards on a skinny post route over the middle — but sustained offensive rhythm was hard to find.

Hill’s interception came on a miscommunication with wide receiver Chris Marshall on an option route. Ginyui was in the right spot and did the rest, taking it all the way back for a score.

Hill said the snap on the failed two-point conversion attempt at the end of the game was supposed to be a direct snap to Cam Settles, who’d hand it back to him.

Instead the snap sailed past both of them, Settles picked it up and threw a pass to offensive lineman Davion Weatherspoon that fell incomplete.

It was that kind of day for the offense.

“Basically, it was a double team on the outside receiver, so it’s supposed to be low hip,” Ginyui said of the interception. “Basically, he just came right into me, and I just made the play. I was there…if the ball’s coming right to you, Godsend, you know? You just got to make the play.”

Hard to argue with that. Easier to wonder what happens when the route isn’t broken and the quarterback isn’t sailing throws into coverage.

Pass rush depth real, even if competition limited

Here’s where it gets a little more interesting. The defensive line was genuinely bad last year, and Saturday at least suggested the depth is better heading into 2026.

Whether it’s good enough to hold up against SEC competition remains the real question.

Five sacks were recorded in the scrimmage. Carter Stoutmire had one, Tyler Scott had one, Steven Soles Jr. had two and Quincy Rhodes Jr. picked up one more.

Soles, who plays the JACK position — a hybrid defensive end and outside linebacker role — said he actually believes his total was three. He and Charlie Collins and Jamonta Waller all got work on Saturday, which is the kind of rotation coach Ryan Silverfield said he needs to see develop.

“The pass rush showed some good things,” Silverfield said. “I think we saw some guys that are able, have the ability to hit the edge. I always say this, if we can get home with a three- or four-man rush, that’s going to be beneficial to our secondary. It’s going to allow us to cover a little better.”

That’s a reasonable takeaway. Getting home with a base rush is something the Hogs struggled to do consistently last season.

It’s also easier to get home when the offensive line isn’t exactly firing on all cylinders, which Saturday’s offensive output suggests may have been the case. Five sacks in a spring scrimmage against a struggling offense lands somewhere between a promising development and a number that needs more context.

Soles talked about the competition among the edge rushers in terms that suggested a healthy room, though.

“It’s competition, honestly, but it’s lifting as we climb,” Soles said. “Charlie might have a great day, I might have a bad day. It’s not like, oh I got him. It’s uplift, really.

“So it’s competition, but we don’t really try to look at it like that because at the end of the day, we’re a family. We look at it as like, say I go out and start. I’m going to work this tackle for five, six hard plays. We rotate, you go in and work on him for five or six hard plays. We rotate…we’re all going to eat.”

Rhodes, who turned down a shot at the NFL Draft to come back to Fayetteville, added a sack and a quarterback hurry.

Silverfield said he’s pushing the in-state defensive end to keep growing even while acknowledging he can’t be on the field for every snap.

“Quincy’s got to continue to progress, as well,” Silverfield said. “I’m on him probably harder than anybody about how he’s got to continue to improve on certain things. Last I checked, he wasn’t able to play 85 plays a game. And so, there’s got to be a multitude of guys. But yeah, it makes you feel better about, okay, we’re not just sitting out there with one guy that can possibly rush the passer.”

Secondary looked solid, with same asterisk

Silverfield was upbeat about what he saw from the defensive backs, and it’s fair to give them some credit.

The coverage appeared tight for much of the afternoon and the group showed roughly eight different coverages throughout the scrimmage, according to the coach.

But again — when the quarterbacks are completing just over half their passes and the offense is generating limited chunk plays, it’s hard to separate good coverage from an offense that wasn’t clicking.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, which is about as much as you can take from any spring scrimmage.

“I’d be pretty disappointed if the offense was scoring at will or if we come away and like, man, there was nothing formulated,” Silverfield said. “It’s that fine line, but I have been pleased. I think we’ve talked about we continue to have better corner play.

“Better play in the secondary. Getting our eyes where they need to be and playing a variety of schemes. I think the more we can do that, the more we can cover guys, the better off we are, but I was pleased with the growth.”

West Virginia linebacker transfer Ben Bogle led the Red with 10 total tackles. Collins finished with six tackles and added a quarterback hurry. Trajen Odom and Rhodes also recorded hurries.

Miguel Mitchell broke up two passes for the Red while Shelton Lewis had one for the White. Jeremy Evans and Waller each recorded a tackle for loss. Neither team fumbled, which is at least one clean takeaway from the day.

The Razorbacks will take a few weeks off before returning to campus for summer conditioning and eventually fall camp.

That’s when the real answers start to come. Saturday offered some reasons for optimism on the defensive side of the ball — just not necessarily as many as the stat sheet might suggest at first glance.