Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman revealed Wednesday that quarterback KJ Jefferson is still battling a shoulder injury ahead of Saturday's game against LSU.
Jefferson was "banged up" and a game-time decision ahead of last week's 21-19 loss to Liberty, according to Pittman. He played arguably his worst game of the season in the loss to the Flames, completing 23-37 passes for 284 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
During Arkansas' bye week following the Oct. 15 win over BYU, Pittman said Jefferson did not throw in practice due to a sore shoulder.
Pittman confirmed Monday that it's still that area that's bothering Jefferson.
"Yeah, it’s really in the clavicle area…it’s bruised," Pittman said. "It’s hard for him to throw the ball without some type of pain. Like I say, he’s much better than what he was last week. So hopefully we’ll get a good week of practice out of him and go from there."
The hope of having a good week of practice seems to have diminished slightly. Pittman said on Wednesday's SEC Teleconference that Jefferson threw "some" in Monday's practice and "not much at all" on Tuesday.
Pittman said in his weekly Wednesday press conference that Jefferson wants to play, but it's really a wait-and-see situation.
"Obviously if he can throw today then we'll throw him a little bit more," Pittman said. "If he can't, we won't. That's kind of been a -- talk to him before practice. He wants to, it's bothering him. He wants to be ready, he wants to play. He wants to practice because he understands that he needs to practice to play well.I think we'll just have to wait and see at practice today and see how he feels."
He did say that Jefferson was "feeling better" on Wednesday morning, but he didn't know what that meant as far as Jefferson's ability to put velocity on the ball.
With Jefferson's status presumably questionable at the moment, backup quarterback Malik Hornsby's name was mentioned by Pittman.
"I will say this, that Malik Hornsby’s had a really good week of practice," Pittman said on the SEC Teleconference. "The team is confident in him. So either way, whatever happens, whether we play KJ or whether we play Malik, we feel like we’ll have a guy that can go back there that the team believes in that can execute our game plan."
Hornsby completed 8-17 passes for 234 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, while running for 114 yards in the Oct. 8 game at Mississippi State, when Jefferson did not play due to a head injury.
Pittman said that the staff has confidence in Hornsby to run the offense if Jefferson can't go.
"We're very confident with him running all of it," Pittman said. "I do think obviously he has a lot of similar skillsets as KJ and then some different. So certainly if he's the quarterback on Saturday, we would have a few different plays for his skillset than possibly what KJ's is."
According to Pittman, there are really two decisions when it comes to Jefferson's availability Saturday.
"I think one of them is is he going to play at all?," Pittman said. "And then the other one is will he start the game? I think there's two. I don’t think we’ll get anywhere close to that until - some of those answers will be possibly today, some maybe tomorrow. But the good thing is he wants to play."
The Hogs and Tigers will face off at 11 a.m. CT Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. The game will be televised on ESPN.
