Chad Morris got an awful lot of things wrong during his time at Arkansas.
Practically throwing his two potential starting quarterbacks into a cage match in the months leading up the 2019 season was not among them.
Ben Hicks, as few Arkansas football fans care to remember, arrived from SMU in the first transfer portal cycle. The Waco native’s familiarity with Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock from his days playing under them at SMU gave him a presumed leg up in landing the QB1 role. Nick Starkel, meanwhile, transferred in from Texas A&M with plenty of upside following a two-year stint in College Station to compete with Hicks.
The idea was that competition breeds better results — iron sharpening iron, so to speak. But under Morris, the quarterback battle dragged well into the season, Arkansas never found any rhythm and the 2019 Razorbacks spiraled to a 2-10 finish.
Since then, Arkansas has seen a steady march of essentially shoe-in starters at the quarterback position during each offseason. You may think KJ Jackson, who showed so well in limited action this season, should be next in line for 2026.
You’d be wrong.
New Hogs coach Ryan Silverfield won’t ultimately help the 6’4” 220-pound redshirt freshman reach his potential as a dual-threat dynamo if he follows Arkansas’ m.o. in the NIL era until now.
He doesn’t need to look far for guidance on what should be his program’s new approach.
The Lane Kiffin QB Blueprint
When you think of the phrase “quarterback whisperer,” it’s hard not to think of Lane Kiffin, especially in the NIL era.
Few coaches have leveraged the portal and NIL better, and the careers of current New York Giant Jaxson Dart and Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss are perfect examples. Their paths couldn’t have been more different; Dart was a top-10 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite who signed with USC before transferring to Ole Miss, while Chambliss arrived from the Division II ranks, but both ended up leading their team to new heights.
The outcomes of their respective quarterback battles differed, but both went through the same type of competition that Starkel and Hicks did, except on steroids. Thanks to their elevated NIL situation, Kiffin consistently brought in high-caliber (more like high-dollar) quarterbacks to push the incumbents.
Chambliss didn’t have any DI experience, but he was a two-time D-II national champion and a 2024 finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy (D-II’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy). He took on the role of Starkel, pushing for the starting spot before ultimately taking over for an injured Austin Simmons and winning the role outright for a team that now has odds of around +4000 (40/1) to win the 2025 College Football Playoff according to some casino games.
