Heading into the UAPB vs Arkansas season opener on Thursday, DJ Williams couldn’t pass up discussing last year’s troubling quarterback situation at his alma mater.
KJ Jefferson, the Razorbacks’ all-time leading passer, had a substandard 2023 season, passing for 2,107 yards with a 64% completion rate alongside 19 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. The 6’3″, 247 pound Mississippi native averaged only 2.8 yards per carry and seemed more sluggish than he had in previous years when he stuffed the stat sheets.
At the time, a lot of the blame was laid at the feet of Dan Enos, the Arkansas offensive coordinator who ended up getting sacked two-thirds through the season.
KJ Jefferson Pre-Snap Issues with Arkansas
But those watching Jefferson’s body language on the sideline and during the games didn’t see the same fire from him they had seen in previous years, outside of a few exceptional moments like Arkansas’ win at Florida. Even in that win, the first game after Enos’ firing, DJ Williams saw some troubling signs with Jefferson’s ability to pre-snap read while watching from the press box.
Many of the sacks Jefferson endured could have been avoided if he’d passed the ball earlier from understanding the rotation of safeties and where the resulting pressure would come from.
“I just don’t think pre-snap, he sometimes gets that yet, which is another hard thing for me to wrap my mind around at that level,” Williams said on the 4th & 5 show last fall. “In SEC play, you should at least know that.”
Having played for the Hogs at the height of the Bobby Petrino era, DJ Williams knows good, cerebral offense as a former Arkansas football star. It’s possible that he at some point tried to relay some of his insight to Jefferson himself.
If that was the case, it doesn’t sound like it fell on particularly receptive ears.
“I think KJ just started drinking his own Kool-Aid, thought he was the man and he couldn’t tell him nothing,” Williams said on the 4th & 5 show previewing Arkansas vs UAPB. “Now I hated it. It is what it is. You couldn’t tell him nothing.”
UCF Football Not Greener Pastures?
The general line of thinking until Thursday night was that KJ Jefferson would find success on his new UCF football team. For one, the competition in the Big 12 is less fearsome than what he faced for years in the SEC.
Secondly, he was hitting a full reset under Gus Malzahn, the same guess who’d coached other dual-threat QBs like Cam Newton and Nick Marshall to great success. Jefferson was considered one of the handful of Big 12 quarterbacks most likely to win the Heisman Trophy according to the best crypto sports betting sites.
DJ Williams expected Jefferson to thrive, and you can bet Malzahn did too.
“I think our offense fits his skill set quite a bit better than the offense he was in last year, similar to what the success he had the two years previous [under Kendal Briles],” Malzahn said on sports talk radio a couple days ago. “We’re going to let him play.”
“He’s going to be a run threat, there’s no doubt about that. But when things break down, he’s at his best. And so we’ve got a lot of confidence in him. He has a good grasp of the offense. We’ve kind of tailored around his skillset, but I’m excited to watch him play.”
On Thursday night, KJ Jefferson did not exactly inspire confidence among UCF football fans that he’s primed for a comeback season.
While UCF beat New Hampshire 57-3, Jefferson struggled out of the gates, often throwing high or not leading his receivers enough. He finished 7 of 14 for 174 yards with 2 touchdowns and one interception, but some UCF football fans complained that even the second touchdown pass was more the product of a great, bail-out catch than an accurate throw.
“There were times where I was trying to overdo it and try to do too much instead of letting the game come to me and just play my ball how I normally play,” Jefferson said afterward.
It’s one thing to struggle because of injury or feeling ill or simply having an “off” day, but some Golden Knights fans sound like some of the same issues that plagued Jefferson last year in Fayetteville may already be showing up in Orlando.
“Damn I know it’s the first game of the season with a new team, but KJ looks really bad, almost like he doesn’t even want to be there,” member DavieKnight wrote on the UCF football Rivals forum.
“KJ seems like he’s just been out partying,” Retnuhrace wrote. “So far the silent fears that some have had have been correct.”
And this one, from akhenaten: “K.J. looks inaccurate and out of shape.”
Ouch.
Yes, it’s only one game. Yes, UCF still won handily. And yes, Jefferson has a history of slow season starts, as those who recall his underwhelming first half against Rice in 2021 can attest. Still, if Jefferson can only muster a 50% completion rate vs New Hampshire, then God save his soul should he play at the same level against the likes of TCU and Colorado in the coming weeks.
The last time Gus Malzahn imported an offensive-minded former Razorback into one of his college football programs, his season imploded and he ended up getting fired. He’d better figure out a way to avoid the same fate this time around.
Meanwhile, with a sample size of one game against a weak opponent, the Taylen Green era is off a great start. On Thursday, Arkansas scored touchdowns on its first 10 possessions and just about wiped UAPB off the map by the score of 70-0. Green joined Cam Newton and Hendon Hooker as only SEC QBs to have 2 passing TDs and 2 rushing TDs in a season-opening half in the last 20 years, according to ESPN.
The Texas native seems to be taking full advantage of learning from Petrino, Arkansas’ new offensive coordinator. “I think Taylen is a little bit more coachable and open to new ideas and learning,” Williams said on 4th and 5.
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KJ Jefferson Would Like You to Know Something
Jefferson, for his part, is working to make sure his body language looks good.
“The main thing was for me to try to get settled in as quick as possible and make sure that I’m having good body language,” Jefferson said of his UCF football debut. “I mean, everybody looks to me. So when the team is down and we needed that momentum, just make sure that I’m just telling guys on the sideline that it’s going to come. Just stay patient.”
And it appears he’s more open to listening to his new coaches.
Indeed, when praising the changes that the UCF staff made in the second half vs New Hampshire, he made the point that “the great ones adjust.”
“At half time we went in, made adjustments having seen what they were doing, picked up on what they were trying to do – different things they were trying to disguise and of that nature.”
More from DJ Williams on KJ Jefferson and Taylen Green starting at 14:55:
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