With Arkansas football at 4-2 and enjoying a few days off in its first open weekend, this is the perfect opportunity to evaluate what we’ve seen from the Hogs through six games. Today, we start with the offense.
After the disastrous hire of Dan Enos nearly cost Sam Pittman his job amid last year’s 4-8 debacle, a lot was riding on the new offensive coordinator hire. Pittman put the health of the program over his own ego in hiring Bobby Petrino, the only guy since Houston Nutt who had been more successful than him as the Arkansas football coach.
Six games in, how does the hire look? Arkansas’ offense has definitely been a mixed bag, but it is certainly much better than last year and, after the Tennessee game, the trend appears to be positive.
Petrino’s offense is a little bit of a glass cannon. It’s hard to stop, but frequently stops itself. It’s explosive but often implosive as well. As ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote ahead of the Tennessee game, “the volatile Razorbacks are a danger to both themselves and their opponents at all times.”
Arkansas’ offense collects a lot of chaos statistics. The good: they generate a lot of explosive plays and are very good on third down, especially third-and-long. The bad: they turn it over a bunch, suffer a lot of negative plays and are very bad at finishing promising drives with touchdowns.
Things stabilized a bit against Tennessee. For the first time against an FBS opponent, the Razorbacks didn’t turn it over. That’s a big deal. Before the game, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit mentioned that turnovers were the main difference between the Hogs being 5-0 and 3-2. That was bookended by Pittman telling sideline reporter Holly Rowe after the game that he knew his team could play with anyone if the turnover margin was even.
After ugly offensive performances against UAB and Auburn where the Hog offense was heavily dependent on Taylen Green running with the football (either on designed runs or scrambles), Petrino spent the two games before the bye focusing on keeping his quarterback in the pocket and getting the ball out of his hands more quickly. That paid off against Tennessee with a crisp offensive performance that provides some hope that the Razorbacks are finding an offensive identity.
Let’s go through the Razorback offense position-by-position. All stats are either from Pro Football Focus or official NCAA stats unless otherwise specified.
Taylen Green’s Big Step Forward for Arkansas Football

Let’s see how Taylen Green stacks up to his predecessor, KJ Jefferson. The gold standard of good quarterbacking in Fayetteville (since Brandon Allen) was Jefferson’s 2022 season, when he completed 68% of his passes, averaged 8.8 yards per pass attempt, 5.6 yards per rush, and created a first down or a touchdown on nearly 40% of his action plays.
You can see on the chart that in 2023, former OC Dan Enos tried to keep some of the basic tendencies the same: Jefferson posted a similar average depth of target (ADOT), and the same designed run and scramble rate. However, he took sacks far more often (42 sacks, if you want the raw numbers) and didn’t move the chains at nearly the same rate. The offense, as no Arkansas fan needs to be reminded, simply stunk.
Green is a very different kind of quarterback. His stronger arm means he generally throws the ball further down the field, and he’s outstanding in his ability to escape sacks (Jefferson had some highlight-reel sack escapes, but he also ran himself into a lot of sacks during his career).
I’ve highlighted the main issues with Green so far this year. First, he’s being pressured on 43% of his dropbacks, much higher than he was ever pressured at Boise State and higher than Jefferson was pressured in either 2022 or 2023. That’s hardly his fault, but Green’s escapability is saving Arkansas a lot of sacks; Green is on pace for 26 sacks this year, Jefferson was sacked 42 times on a lower pressure rate in 2023.
Second is the amount of time it takes Green to throw the ball. He spends 3.22 seconds per drop back in the pocket this season, which is the longest of any SEC starter. Many of Petrino’s passing concepts are long-developing, but 3.22 seconds is longer than any of Lamar Jackson’s three seasons in Petrino’s offense.
Green held onto the ball way too long in his first four games against FBS competition, peaking at 3.66 seconds against UAB, a game in which the Blazers played a lot of press man to limit separation that Razorback receivers could get.
But against Tennessee, the Hogs finally got that number down:

Spending just 2.87 seconds per dropback in the pocket, Green turned in his best passing performance as a Razorback despite being pressured on almost half his dropbacks.
Petrino dialed up plenty of shallow cross, mesh and slant routes to give Green easy throws over the middle that came out of his hand quickly. He also took advantage of Green’s preference for throwing to his right, as Green was 10 of 10 for 104 on throws that were short and to the right.
With his quarterback in rhythm, the downfield stuff that is a staple of the Petrino scheme started to work in the second half. Green was 3 of 3 for 78 yards on vertical passes in the second half, finding Andrew Armstrong twice and Tyrone Broden once. All three passes were thrown with pinpoint accuracy. If Green can continue to hit those throws, this offense will be very hard to stop.
Pittman is hopeful Green will be ready for LSU, but if he’s not, then the Hogs will get at least one game of Malachi Singleton. Singleton delivered the game-winning drive against Tennessee, but remains mostly unknown. He lacks the high-end physical tools and athleticism of Green, but fans were impressed by his mechanics and accuracy during his extended look against UAPB.
Jackson Continues to Earn Tough Yards
Like Jefferson’s 2022 season for quarterbacks, Rocket Sanders’ 2022 season is the gold standard for Hog running backs since at least Alex Collins. As you can see in the chart below, Sanders had a lot of help in 2022, as Kendal Briles’ offense gave him a huge cushion of 3.4 yards before contact per rush that year. When the Hogs transitioned to Dan Enos’s offense in 2023, Sanders had a rough year.

Ja’Quinden Jackson, by contrast, is an after-contact monster. His 3.8 yards after contact per rush is good for fourth-best among SEC starters. Arkansas’ use of him has been strategic: 39 of his carries have scored or moved the chains, most among all SEC backs.
Against the excellent run defenses of Texas A&M and Tennessee, Jackson’s run cushion has dipped. Over those two games, he got just 19 yards before contact on 30 carries (0.6 yards before contact per rush). The good news here is that the three SEC opponents the Hogs have played rank 2nd, 5th and 6th in the SEC in PFF’s run defense grades — and four of the five remaining SEC opponents rank 7th or worse, including LSU in two weeks at 15th. So Jackson may get a boost very soon.
I included Braylen Russell’s numbers in the table as well. His yards before contact got a boost due to the fact that both of his carries on the game-winning drive against Tennessee generated a lot before he was touched, but so far, he’s not generating a ton after contact. We’ll see if those numbers go up as he settles into a role as the “fourth-quarter finisher.”
Can Anyone Help Andrew Armstrong?
Andrew Armstrong is having a truly incredible season. He’s been targeted on 31% of the routes he’s run and he leads the team in yards per route run by a fairly large margin. He’s Arkansas’ only proven press-man beater, able to win on fades, curls and comebacks, as we saw against Tennessee. His 242 receiving yards against man coverage is the most on the team by a mile.

Theoretically, the Hogs should have little problem with man coverage due to the many tall, large-handed receivers on the roster. But Tyrone Broden on the other side is having a rough year. He finally had a catch against Tennessee – his first contested catch of the season in 12 tries – but he’s still dropped (5) almost as many passes as he’s caught (9).
So why does he keep playing? The simple answer is that the Hogs don’t appear to have better options. Isaac TeSlaa is as sure-handed as they come, with zero drops in two seasons in Fayetteville, but his low target share (12%) backs up what the film shows: he’s not very good at getting open. In fact, PFF charts TeSlaa with zero targets against man coverage so far this season.
Isaiah Sategna has firmly emerged as the second option. He’s generated 112 yards after catch and 13 first downs, both second behind Armstrong, but way ahead of any other wide receiver on the roster. And he’s only been charged with one drop (in the endzone against Tennessee).
An interesting side effect of the offense transitioning from “Green running” to “Green throwing” has been Ja’Quinden Jackson’s role as a receiver. He had just one catch for eight yards total in the UAB and Auburn games, but over the last two, as the offense focuses on Green throwing from the pocket, Jackson has begun to behave like a typical Petrino running back in the passing game. Against Texas A&M and Tennessee, Jackson caught five of six targets for 69 yards. He’s got good hands, so look for him to continue to provide a threat as a receiver.
Shoring Up Pass Protection
Arkansas’ high pressure rate allowed is going to be a feature of a Petrino offense that likes longer-developing pass concepts and likes to involve the running backs as receivers, but the offensive line has one clear weakness in pass protection, as you can see below. Right tackle Keyshawn Blackstock has allowed 24 pressures this season, more than the next two starters combined.

Why not replace him? Well, Blackstock has the second-best run blocking grade, and when teaming up with right guard Josh Braun, the Hogs are strong when running right. Braylen Russell’s 24-yard run against Tennessee that put the Hogs in scoring range came over the right side thanks to good blocks by both Braun and Blackstock.
Against Tennessee, getting the ball out faster proved to be the best antidote to pressure. Petrino quarterbacks will always be pressured, so it was a positive to see Green have good timing on his throws despite constantly facing a pass rush.
The tight ends have also contributed in a major way as blockers. Luke Hasz has had a disappointing season as a receiver, but he grades as a very good run blocker in a scheme that uses a lot of outside zone (a play that needs a good block from the tight end to work). The Hogs also miss Andreas Paaske, who was off to an excellent start as a run blocker before suffering a concussion against UAB. Getting him back would be huge if the Hogs want to run the ball down the stretch.
Areas for Arkansas Football to Improve
It’s no secret that Arkansas’ offense is still far from reaching its potential. The Hogs leave a lot of points on the table right now despite the fact that they are moving the ball well. Being a better situational offense means finishing promising drives with points, especially touchdowns.
One key area for improvement is early downs. The Hogs are being bailed out by being very good on third-and-long, but they’re finding themselves in too many third-and-longs due to issues on first and second down.
Part of the issue is that they’ve faced good run defenses, so early-down running isn’t moving the ball much. That will change in the coming weeks, but many of Green’s best passes have come on third down too. It felt like the Hogs found a rhythm with early-down passing in the second half against Tennessee. Will that continue?
Ultimately, if the Hogs can build on the identity they showed against the Vols, they’ll be in good shape. Still, the only consistency for this offense this year has been inconsistency. Halfway through the year, we’re still not quite sure how good this unit can be.
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For Part 2 of this series, go here:
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