Arkansas Has a Quarterback Rotation, No Run Game, and One Last Soft Landing Before October

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The scoreboard read 45-17, and the exits told the rest. With Arkansas trailing Georgia 21-3 at halftime Saturday, large numbers of home fans left Reynolds Razorback Stadium on a sun-soaked day that approached 100 degrees. Mostly Georgia fans sat through the second half of what became a second straight blowout and a 12th consecutive loss to FBS competition — a quarterback question first-year coach Ryan Silverfield declined to settle.

The Razorbacks (1-2, 0-1 SEC) now get Tulsa at home on Saturday at 7 p.m. on SEC Network+ — the first night game of the season, part of Family Weekend, and the last breather before a brutal October. It is a game Arkansas should win. It is also a game that will reveal whether anything from the first three weeks can actually be fixed.

Two quarterbacks, neither with a spark

Silverfield planned it in advance: starter KJ Jackson would get the first two series against Georgia, then backup AJ Hill would get a look. Jackson played most of the game anyway and finished 20-of-27 for 212 yards. Hill went 8-of-14 for 76 yards.

"Not good enough," Silverfield said of the quarterback play. "When you can't score points for most of three quarters, it's always going to start with the quarterback. Neither played great. Neither necessarily provided the spark that we needed. Obviously if we can get the run game going, it'll certainly make the quarterback's life easier."

Against Georgia, Arkansas' opening drive reached the Bulldogs' 38 before stalling when Jackson threw incomplete on third and fourth down. Its first touchdown didn't come until Smith's 5-yard run with 8:30 left in the game, one play after Jackson's 25-yard strike to Jamari Hawkins on third-and-15. A week earlier, the Hogs fell 43-10 at Utah. Same pattern: competitive early, then nothing until the outcome was decided.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, never had to sweat. Georgia has now beaten Tennessee State, Western Kentucky, and Arkansas by a combined score of 178-40 this year — though Arkansas was the first opponent to keep Georgia's starters in the game into the second half. "I am proud of this team. I am excited about this team," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. "We've got a lot we can get better at but, man, they buy into it. They are physical, they believe in who we are and we continue to get better."

The run game is the bigger emergency

Worse than the quarterback numbers is what's in front of them. Arkansas ran 20 times for 17 yards against Georgia — a figure that includes three sacks for minus-28 yards, but by any accounting a collapse.

"Anytime you can't stop the run and you can't run the football, both lines of scrimmage, offensive and defensive lines have got to improve," Silverfield said after the Georgia loss.

Georgia exposed both sides. The Bulldogs ran for 254 yards on 42 attempts, with running backs Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens combining for 114 yards and four touchdowns on 25 carries and quarterback Gunner Stockton ripping off runs of 62, 25, 22, and 13 yards. Stockton also completed 10 of 13 passes for 147 yards, and he took a seat for good after throwing a 61-yard touchdown pass to Craig Dandridge with 12:42 remaining to give the Bulldogs a 38-3 lead. Arkansas was outgained 464-300 overall, with 142 of its own yards arriving in the fourth quarter. The nine-game home losing streak against power-conference opponents — average margin 18.4 points — rolls on.

Tulsa week sets up as a get-right game

The timing helps. Tulsa is expected to be without starting quarterback Baylor Hayes, who missed last week's 42-0 win over East Texas A&M with a sprained knee. Coach Tre Lamb said Monday that Hayes has a Grade 1 sprain, "is not moving very well," and did not practice Sunday; backup Dexter Williams, a graduate transfer with prior stops at Indiana, Georgia Southern, and Kennesaw State, would start. Williams went 14-of-26 for 164 yards and three touchdowns last week and owns a road win at Michigan State from his Indiana days — a 39-31 victory in 2022 in his first career start.

Lamb praised his backup's readiness while protecting him last week: "He played OK. I thought he played solid. He throws a nice deep ball." Williams himself struck a confident note: "We've got a lot of players on our team who played in these big environments before. I think the confidence that we'll go into it with will be high."

Arkansas and Tulsa meet for the first time since a 23-0 Razorback win in 2018. A comfortable home win would stop the bleeding and give Jackson — or Hill — a clean tape before the schedule turns vicious: at Texas A&M on Oct. 3, home for Tennessee on Oct. 10, at Vanderbilt on Oct. 17, and home for Missouri on Oct. 31, all in October flex windows.

Silverfield's own diagnosis is the one to watch: "The execution is where we're lacking and it's our job to get it fixed." Two weeks later, the response so far is 12 straight FBS losses and a run game that has gone backward. Tulsa is the last chance to answer before the answer starts coming from the October slate.