FAYETTEVILLE — The movie backed up what Ryan Silverfield's preliminary ideas following a dud in Week 1.
The l offense was not as productive as the brand new head coach would have favored towards an FCS opponent. A successful begin to his tenure didn’t diminish his disappointment after the s knocked off North Alabama 31-14. s averaged 4.9 yards per play, 3 yards per carry and coughed up three turnovers in a efficiency that Silverfield mentioned was less than his requirements.
Improved play from quarterback KJ Jackson would go a great distance in rectifying the offensive struggles. Towards North Alabama, Jackson was 24 for 35 with 267 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Eight of these 9 incompletions got here within the first half.
After the sport, Silverfield applauded Jackson's operations throughout the ultimate two quarters, however he additionally bemoaned two particular points of the passing sport.
On Monday, Sept. 7, Silverfield reiterated his perception Jackson will need to have higher decision-making on when to take pictures down the sphere, and when to verify all the way down to his working backs.
"It’s that superb stability, it really is, of the place do we have to get this factor," Silverfield mentioned. "There’s no easy or proper reply. I’ve obtained nice religion as a result of he can come to the sideline and even earlier than trying on the iPad be like, 'Yeah, I ought to have hit the verify down.' Or, ‘Man, I knew he was going to be open on the put up and I ought to have simply let it go.’"
Jackson averaged 7.6 yards per try in Week 1. Solely Auburn and Texas A&M has much less explosive passing video games amongst SEC groups.
Silverfield believes the Hogs' lack of ability to push the ball down the sphere by way of the air performed a job within the ineffective dashing assault. Large receiver Jelani Watkins supplied the longest run of the sport, and in the event you take away his 16-yard jet sweep, the Razorbacks solely averaged 2.75 yards per carry.
The following problem is a stiff Utah protection that held Idaho to 119 yards passing in Week 1. The s have had a top-40 passing protection in every of the previous two seasons and ranked seventeenth nationally in 2025 once they allowed 177.8 yards per sport.
"They’re going to problem you. You must discover a strategy to beat (Utah), they’re not going to beat themselves, and so they play actually, actually sound," Silverfield mentioned.
Utah's Morgan Scalley is in his first season as head coach, however he's been with this system as a defensive assistant for the previous 18 years. Scalley was the defensive coordinator below Kyle Whittingham for 10 seasons earlier than getting a promotion this offseason after Whittingham left for Michigan.
Silverfield has immense respect for Scalley, and he is aware of his offense goes to need to play significantly better if s needs to tug off an upset.
He additionally has full religion that Jackson is able to taking a leap in his second begin of the season.
"(Jackson) took very exhausting teaching, and to his credit score, once I known as him out in entrance of the entire workforce about his play not being of the usual of what we count on round right here, he nodded and mentioned, ‘Sure, sir,'" Silverfield mentioned. "He will get it. He’s been diving into the Utah movie from the second he’s been in a position to and he understands it. I believe that demeanor helps him."
Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas soccer, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Instances Document, a part of the USA TODAY Community. Attain him at jfuller@usatodayco.com or observe him > on X, previously generally known as Twitter.
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