JEFFERSON jumps into fire against red-hot LSU.
BATON ROUGE — KJ Jefferson’s first start as a true freshman quarterback for the University of Arkansas against a top-five team on the road didn’t go as well as Razorbacks interim Coach Barry Lunney Jr.’s did 27 years ago.
Lunney, who was promoted to interim coach on Nov. 10 after Chad Morris was fired, made his first start as a true freshman quarterback on Oct. 10, 1992, when the Razorbacks upset No. 4 Tennessee 25-24 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
Jefferson and the Razorbacks didn’t come close to pulling off a similar upset Saturday night against LSU, which beat Arkansas 56-20.
But considering LSU is ranked No. 1 and the game was at Tiger Stadium, Jefferson gained some valuable experience in becoming the fourth quarterback to start for Arkansas this season.
Unfortunately for Jefferson and the Razorbacks, he had to leave the game in the third quarter after suffering a possible concussion.
“KJ’s going to be evaluated for a concussion,” Lunney said. “I haven’t heard for sure exactly where that’s at. But that’s his situation.”
Jefferson completed 7 of 14 passes for 105 yards, including a 38-yarder to Treylon Burks that set up a 24-yard Connor Limpert field goal in the first quarter that pulled Arkansas within 7-3.
Jefferson also had 12 rushing attempts, including a long run of 10 yards. But he wasn’t credited with any rushing yards because three sacks negated his 27 yards in gains.
“I thought he showed some signs,” Lunney said of Jefferson’s performance. “He’s very talented. There’s no doubt about that. I mean, this is a tough, tough task to put a true freshman on the road against a team of this quality in this environment.
“We felt very strongly that his ability to read and do some zone read and some power read and the quarterback run was going to maximize our opportunity to stay on the
field and move the ball a little bit.”
Lunney said he decided before Arkansas’ open date last week that Jefferson would be the starter at LSU, and Jefferson received all of the firstteam reps in practice.
“I thought he played well as a frigging true freshman, you know what I mean?” junior running back Rakeem Boyd said. “That’s a pretty big role to step up in and play the No. 1 team. I thought he did well.”
Twice in the first half, Jefferson came up just short of the first-down marker when he could have stayed on his feet for first downs, once when he ran out of bounds and then when he slid.
“I thought he did some good things and probably made some freshman mistakes that were predictable or that you could probably see coming that probably won’t happen again,” Lunney said. “Obviously, there was a couple
of situations where he lost some awareness of where he was on the field, and down and distance situations.
“We’ve got to do a better job of emphasizing that. But he competed hard. He did the things we asked him to do. We just didn’t have enough gas in our tank to stay with these guys for four quarters.”
Jefferson caught one of his own passes to start a drive from the Arkansas 39 in the second quarter.
LSU safety JaCoby Stevens deflected the first-down pass by Jefferson, who caught the ball and was tackled by Stevens for an 8-yard loss.
The Razorbacks ended up getting a 47-yard field goal from Limpert on the drive — which was kept alive by Jefferson’s screen pass to Boyd for a 29-yard gain on third and 16 from the Arkansas 33 — to cut LSU’s lead to 7-6.
“I think KJ played pretty good for his first start, especially against the No. 1 team in the nation,” Arkansas senior linebacker De’Jon Harris said. “He’s got a lot of growth to improve on, but I think he did a pretty good job tonight.”
Jefferson had played off the bench against Mississippi State and Western Kentucky.
“Obviously, we wanted to see what he brought to the table a little bit from his athleticism,” Lunney said of starting Jefferson. “I thought that could be a little bit of an offset for us and help us.
“The quarterback run game adds an element from a defensive perspective that causes challenges, and he’d kind of been progressing and the moments he’d gotten in there against Mississippi State and Western Kentucky you saw a little life come in us, I think, when he showed up momentarily.
“I just thought he’d gotten himself in position — the way he’s practicing and preparing — he was ready for this, and he gave us the best chance to win. I do feel like we made the best decision, and I think he’ll really grow from this moment.”
Boyd said Jefferson handled himself well in the huddle.
“You know, he acts like a pro,” Boyd said. “When KJ gets out there, he knows what he’s doing. He’s got a good grasp of it right now. So hopefully he can keep moving forward.”
Junior Nick Starkel replaced Jefferson at quarterback with 5:47 to play in the third quarter with LSU leading 42-6. Then Starkel was injured in the fourth quarter, with what Lunney described as a “similar” injury to Jefferson.
Redshirt junior Jack Lindsey — the Razorbacks’ holder on field-goal and extra-point attempts — came in to play quarterback for the first time in his career and led two touchdown drives.
Lindsey ran for 30 yards on his first snap and completed 3 of 4 passes for 51 yards.
“That was a spark right there,” Boyd said of Lindsey’s play. “He’s a dude. I think he’s been waiting on his shot for about four years. I’m really happy for him.”
Boyd said it was tough to see Jefferson have to leave the game.
“You hate to see that happen to a young guy,” Boyd said. “A young guy that was playing his tail off, too. He did amazing, and it was hurtful seeing him get banged up a little bit.”