Ryan Silverfield says he never thought about pulling his quarterback Saturday night.
Maybe he should have.
Arkansas lost 34-7 at Texas A&M, the third lopsided defeat of the fall, and KJ Jackson was a big reason why.
The junior hit on barely half of his 25 throws, 13 in all, and finished with 111 yards. He had a scoring pass and a pick. His legs added six yards on four carries.
The Razorbacks won the coin toss and wanted the ball. They had it for three plays.
“A play we practiced multiple times,” Jackson said. “The dig was coming open. I just overthrew it over the middle. Can’t happen. Just overthrew him.”
Good for him for owning it. It still counts as a turnover. At the end of the play nobody cares if he took the blame or not.
Outstanding start for the Hogs in College Station:
– KJ Jackson interception
– Texas A&M touchdown
– Arkansas three-and-out
– Texas A&M touchdownAggies lead 14-0 with 3:00 left in the first quarter.
https://t.co/lPuwNC9Vtf
— Michael Main (@MichaelMain__) October 3, 2026
So who else is there?
His coach wasn’t handing out any cover afterward.
“Obviously KJ’s opening drive wasn’t good enough,” Silverfield said. “Missed read and a bad throw. He had some more misreads throughout the game and some poor decisions with the football.
“KJ needs to continue to learn, grow and improve. But there was never thought about removing him.”
Never? In a game they lost by 27? That’s a long time to not at least try something different. We’ve all heard what repeating the same thing that fails and expecting a different result. That’s probably why I ended up divorced so much.
Most folks jump straight to AJ Hill. I’m not sold that’s the answer either.
That leaves Hank Hendrix, the freshman the staff apparently doesn’t want to throw to the wolves yet. Can’t blame them.
But the calendar helps. Once the season gets down to four games, the Hogs can start playing him.
And doesn’t the new rule giving players five years to play make that call easier? There isn’t much left to protect.
Look how many guys were unblocked. Someone even ran a route. lol. What the fuck was this
— John Pork (@johnporkhogs) October 4, 2026
Is quarterback even the biggest problem?
A new quarterback doesn’t block anybody.
The lone sack Jackson took was a costly one. It was third-and-11 with 11:22 to go before halftime, and Arkansas was close enough to kick.
Adam Hawkes lost his man up front. Seven yards went backward, Max Gilbert had to try from 55 and it didn’t go through.
“We’ve got pressure back there, but he’s got to find a way to get rid of the ball and feel that pressure, and chunk it,” Silverfield said.
He didn’t let the line off either.
“But pass protection is involved, everybody,” he said because there’s a reason they chart pressures that can cause the same results as a sack.
Then there’s the receiver room. Through three quarters, nobody at wideout or tight end had caught a pass except Chris Marshall.
Donovan Faupel finally joined him in the fourth. CJ Brown got thrown to and that was about it for the wideouts. Sutton Smith caught five balls out of the backfield and they went for 24 yards.
Throw in some drops, one of them by Marshall. “We’ve got to get some other guys to continue to step up in that room,” the coach said.
Can Jackson’s problems be fixed?
Plenty of this is still on the quarterback. Silverfield made sure of that.
“A lot of times there’s some of those check downs that we should have thrown that are probably six to 12-yard gains,” he said.
Jackson didn’t see much of a way to argue with that.
“I’ve got to do a better job of getting through my reads and finding those guys,” he said.
You can coach reads. You can coach throwing it away. Five games in, neither one has taken.
The Razorbacks are 2-3 and 0-2 in the SEC. They haven’t beaten a league team in 13 tries, and the Aggies have won 14 times in the past 15 years.
Next up is a home date Saturday with No. 17 Tennessee. Kickoff is 3:15 p.m. on SEC Network.
A different quarterback won’t catch the ball or pick up a twist. But this staff ought to find out what it’s got in Hendrix before the season runs out.
Waiting hasn’t fixed anything yet.
