Razorback Roster Rundown: No. 9 John Stephen Jones
This article is part of a series previewing the Razorbacks’ 2020 football roster.
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Razorback Career
Arkansas legacy dual-threat quarterback John Stephen Jones has been part of the Hogs' quarterback carousel for two historically poor seasons in Fayetteville and while he's gotten a semblance of a shot to lead the team, it's hard to judge much off of the 82 total snaps he's played so far.
It was clear Jones would redshirt his first season with two veteran quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart but he saw a little bit of action in three games, all losses, against North Texas, Mississippi State and Missouri.
In 2019, once again behind two veterans and a true freshman with high expectations in KJ Jefferson, Jones played in three games. He checked into the games against Alabama and Mississippi State when the games were all but lost but got his first chance to start against Western Kentucky, led by his former teammate Ty Storey. Jones completed three passes on 10 attempts for 27 yards and had an interception on the first drive of the game, eventually being pulled and replaced by Jefferson in the second quarter. He got one more chance after halftime but went 0-3 on the first drive and was benched for the remainder of what ended up being Chad Morris's final game.
His redshirt freshman year concluded with 13 total passes completed for 101 yards and two touchdowns.
2020 Expectations
The Razorbacks brought in yet another graduate transfer quarterback, Feleipe Franks, for the 2020 season and signed another 4-star dual-threat freshman, so it's looking unlikely that John Stephen Jones will have a chance at the starting job in 2020.
Given Arkansas's recent experiences with grad transfers and quarterbacks in general however, Jones will need to stay ready to step in.
Expectations are low but Jones' legacy status and his prolific Texas high school career make him one of the more intriguing players on the team with fewer than 100 snaps played.
Recruiting Flashback
Grandson of Razorback national champion and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, John Stephen Jones' offer list was modest for a two-time Texas state champion coming out of high school, but it was essentially inevitable that he'd wind up playing with a Razorback on his uniform. Jones picked Arkansas over offers from hometown SMU, Texas Tech and Davidson following in his grandfather and father's footsteps.
Jones was the second quarterback in Chad Morris's first class at Arkansas, joining Connor Noland who would eventually leave the football team to focus on baseball.