FAYETTEVILLE — A lot can happen in a month.
Back in mid-December, Sam Pittman felt really good about his quarterback room for next season. In fact, he was so confident in the depth at the position that Arkansas didn’t even include it in its 2022 recruiting class.
KJ Jefferson asserted himself as the starter with a breakout season, Malik Hornsby showed flashes of elite speed in limited reps and the staff liked what it saw from Lucas Coley and Kade Renfro in their first year in the program.
Instead of recruiting a high school player to join that group next season, the Razorbacks opted to hold off with the goal of landing a blue-chip recruit in the following class.
“We made a decision not to sign a quarterback this year simply because we felt like we were on some really good ones in the 2023 class,” Pittman said. “I don’t know if it’s a smart move or not - I guess time will tell - but I felt like we could, because there’s nobody immediately in front of a guy (and) with KJ going to be a junior, maybe you could really sign a great one in the 2023 class.”
Fast forward a little more than three weeks and it doesn’t seem to be a smart move.
Renfro - a walk-on who began his career as a scholarship signee at Ole Miss - went down with a torn ACL during bowl practices and then Hornsby entered the transfer portal last week.
That leaves the Razorbacks with only two healthy quarterbacks - Jefferson and Coley - for spring ball and fall camp. They have no one else on the roster, not even a walk-on.
Beyond the obvious scenario in which both of those players get hurt, Arkansas needs more than just two quarterbacks to simply complete a practice, as someone needs to run the scout team.
There’s no doubt that fact isn’t lost on Pittman, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles and the rest of the staff, who are now tasked with figuring out a solution to that problem.
Not that they need our help, but HawgBeat has come up with five possible ways to fix the depth issue, ordered from most to least likely…
1. Move Rogers back to QB
The most logical solution to the quarterback depth issue is to move Landon Rogers back to his original position after converting him to tight end during fall camp.
It’s something Pittman discussed as an option following Renfro’s injury, but he was hesitant to commit to it because of the 6-foot-4, 210-pound athlete’s potential as a tight end or even a wide receiver.
“We don't want to slow down his potential there, but at the same time, he's got a lot of arm and we certainly have that in the back of our mind that we could move him back to quarterback for spring, but again, that would only be if we thought he could be a two or a three. Otherwise we'd feel like he can be a two or better as a tight end/wide receiver.”
At the time of that comment, Rogers would have probably been fourth on the quarterback depth chart at best. With Hornsby’s departure, he’s suddenly in the top three.
That said, his potential as a tight end isn’t just coach-speak. Despite not playing the position until midway through fall camp, Rogers consistently got to dress out on game days - including for the Outback Bowl - while other tight ends, like Collin Sutherland and Erin Outley, did not.
Arkansas does return Trey Knox and Hudson Henry, plus adds a potential freshman contributor in Tyrus Washington as an early enrollee, so perhaps it could afford moving Rogers back to quarterback for at least a short-term fix.
