FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. It’s becoming obvious nobody has much knowledge where Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson is going. In this day and age, that’s usually surprising. A lot of people were making predictions early in all of this he would be snapped up pretty quickly.
Brad Crawford at 247Sports speculated a few days ago on some possible landing spots, but none of them have come through yet. The fact he hadn’t signed with somebody by Christmas was a little bit of a warning sign.
Central Florida has led the prediction parade as the most likely landing spot. On3.com has him 100% forecasted to join Gus Malzahn. But nobody has announced anything, which just leads to more speculation. Remember when we waited an eternity for him to tell us he was even entering the portal? Sam Pittman said on signing day he knew it the first week or so of December.
Maybe Jefferson is hoping what Malzahn did at Auburn with Cam Newton back in 2010 could be re-created. That was Jefferson’s idol growing up in Sardis, Miss. The only problem is he hasn’t reached anything near that talent level or had talent around him like that.
Jefferson has not been consistently able to throw receivers open or go deep in progressions. If you don’t know, that’s throwing it somewhere the receiver has to read the throw because the quarterback can see the secondary people better than a receiver who, at times, has a lot going on around him. The second part of that is he could make one read and if it wasn’t there, he took off running.
He hasn’t shown the speed or elusiveness of Newton as a runner. Jefferson almost seems to relish trying to run over somebody rather than hit the open spaces. Some folks think that’s a positive, but sooner or later it usually causes you to miss some time. He lumbers along with people hanging off him that gets fans excited, but it also means you’re being held up and if somebody ends up low could cause a bigger problem.
Jefferson’s won-lost record was 20-18 in games he started over five years. The big NIL money usually goes to guys with a better winning percentage than 52.6%. We don’t know anything for certain on that front.
Most importantly, that 2010 team Newton played for had an incredibly experienced bunch of starters, some of them (like Lee Ziemba from Rogers). They had started together for 3-4 years before that season when it all came together. You can watch Newton’s highlights from that season and see a lot of big blocks he had along the way.
Don’t get carried away Malzahn can duplicate what happened with the Tigers in 2010. The Golden Knights have a claimed national championship like the one the Razorbacks claim. It was primarily an in-house award and the trophy for both of them sits in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Now it’s just a waiting game that’s little more than a mild curiosity for most Hogs fans. Jefferson has already made his choice to not be here. Where he goes now is his decision.
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