LITTLE ROCK — Not everyone was happy with how things unfolded in Arkansas’ season-opening blowout win over UAPB on Thursday.
Even though the Razorbacks won 70-0 at War Memorial Stadium, wide receiver Jaedon Wilson’s social media activity doesn’t indicate he was as thrilled as most of his teammates.
At 10:50 p.m. CT, the redshirt junior shared on Twitter that he had updated his profile photo to a picture of him from his time playing at DeSoto High School in Texas. It was previously a graphic that showed him in an Arkansas uniform.
Wilson’s bio also now reads, “Wideout @ University D1 Graduate,” with no mention of Arkansas. It’s unclear if it previously said anything about his current school, but that’s still peculiar wording.
The timing of the post — it was just after postgame interviews wrapped up, so the team likely hadn’t even left the stadium yet — was also eye-catching.
It was reminiscent of former linebacker Jaheim Thomas’ cryptic tweet following last year’s Missouri game. He quickly deleted it, but ultimately chose to hit the transfer portal.
Lack of Playing Time for Wilson
That tweet by Jaheim Thomas came after he played only 19 snaps in the season finale – and 12 snaps the game before that – despite being the team’s leading tackler.
Jaedon Wilson’s frustration likely stems from a similar reason.
Listed as the third-team “X” receiver behind Andrew Armstrong and Monte Harrison on the Razorbacks’ initial depth chart, he seems to have fallen further than that in the wide receiver pecking order.
Even with Armstrong not playing because of a lingering hamstring injury, Wilson appeared to be about the eighth option at the position against UAPB and actually played the fewest offensive snaps (8) among the 11 receivers who got on the field. He was not one of the 14 different players who caught a pass in the opener, either.
That shouldn’t have been surprising to those who paid close attention to offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino’s comments during fall camp. Asked who had stepped up while Armstrong and Tyrone Broden were sidelined with injuries, the play caller mentioned several names, but never brought up Wilson.
It’s a stark contrast to last year when praise was lavished on Wilson coming out of fall camp. That set the stage for him coming into the 2023 season as a starter and the 6-foot-3 receiver lived up to the hype when he took a screen pass 65 yards for Arkansas’ first touchdown of the year. He finished that game against Western Carolina with three receptions for a team-high 83 yards.
Over the next 11 games, though, Wilson caught only 12 more passes for 116 yards. That’s a measly 9.7 yards per reception. Only five of those catches came in SEC play and they totaled just 38 yards.
Another thing to keep in mind with Wilson is that his position coach his first three years at Arkansas was Kenny Guiton, who left to become the wide receivers coach at Wisconsin this offseason. Although he was already signed with the Razorbacks when Guiton was hired, he presumably had a prior relationship with the coach because Wilson’s older brother, Dontre, played with Guiton at Ohio State.
Other WRs for Arkansas Football
Of the 14 players who caught passes Thursday night, eight of them were wide receivers. Again, it was against a far inferior opponent in UAPB, but they combined for 17 receptions, 277 yards and one touchdown.
As mentioned above, Andrew Armstrong – last year’s leading receiver – was held out of the game. That opened up a starting spot, which Isaac TeSlaa filled despite primarily working in the slot behind Isaiah Sategna throughout fall camp.
He ended up leading the Razorbacks in receiving, catching three passes for 53 yards. The first of those was a contested 10-yard grab in the red zone thrown by Taylen Green, but his most impressive play was a one-handed snag for 28 yards on a third-down throw over the middle by Malachi Singleton, also in the red zone.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the amount of reps for Texas A&M transfer Jordan Anthony, whose 37 offensive snaps were one fewer than Tyrone Broden for the most in the game.
While he didn’t get talked about much during fall camp or really flash during the portions of practice open to reporters, Anthony apparently came on strong leading up to the season. He struggled with drops at times in practice, an issue that flared up on the game’s opening drive when he dropped a pass over the middle, but he bounced back to catch three passes for 46 yards — including one particularly tough grab for 24 yards on third-and-15.
“I think Jordan, maybe over the last 7-10 days, has really upped his game,” Pittman said. “He dropped his first pass, I believe, and then came back and got the other ones. Some of them were difficult catches. You know, he’s never played. He’s transferred and he’s ran track, but he’s really never played football at the college level until today and I thought he did a nice job.”
Broden finished with a modest 35 yards on three catches, but one of those was a touchdown and he likely would have eclipsed the century mark had Green hit him in stride on the game-opening deep ball. He was also open on another play when Green’s throw was at his feet and uncatchable.
The other starter was Isaiah Sategna, who officially had one catch for 34 yards, but had another 42-yard catch wiped out by a holding penalty. That doesn’t include a would-be punt return touchdown that was erased by a block in the back penalty.
Other players who appeared to crack the rotation ahead of Wilson include true freshman CJ Brown, redshirt freshman Davion Dozier, South Florida transfer Khafre Brown and 29-year-old walk-on Monte Harrison, the former MLB player.
The latter of those looks like he might become one of the best stories of the season, as he’s emerged as a legitimate contributor despite being out of the sport for a decade and playing in the SEC as the second-oldest non-kicker/punter in the FBS this year. Harrison shared a sweet moment with his son after his first game, in which he caught both of his targets for 29 total yards.
The only wide receivers who played and are likely behind Wilson in the pecking order are true freshman Krosse Johnson and walk-on Kamron Bibby.
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