HawgBeat - Arkansas 2023 midseason report card - Offense
HawgBeat provides grades for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team's offense at the midway point of the season.
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Not long ago, people around the country were on the edge of their seats impatiently waiting for the 2023 college football season to begin. With the midway point of the year upon us, some of those fans' excitement levels have dwindled while others have skyrocketed depending on how their favorite team has performed.
For Arkansas fans, the beginning of head coach Sam Pittman's fourth year on campus has been a major disappointment. After starting out with two victories over Western Carolina and Kent State, the Razorbacks have dropped four straight games to BYU, LSU, Texas A&M and Ole Miss.
Projected by the media to finish fifth in the SEC West by season's end, it was never expected that Arkansas was going to compete for championships. However, losing games in the fashion the Hogs have — blown leads, poor offensive line play and questionable in-game coaching decisions — isn't the best way to get in the good graces of the fanbase.
Coming into the year, it was believed that the Arkansas offense would need to make up for a defense in a transition period under defensive coordinator Travis Williams. Up to this point, though, the opposite has been true. The Razorbacks rank 110th in the nation in offensive yards per game (332.8) but rank 43rd in yards allowed per game (340.7). It's fair to say that if the Hogs' offense was playing up its preseason expectations, Arkansas could be a dark-horse candidate to win the SEC West.
To be completely fair, Arkansas' schedule hasn't exactly been easy. The BYU defeat in Fayetteville wasn't ideal, but road losses to a then-No.12 LSU team, a Texas A&M team that has had the Razorbacks' number ever since they joined the SEC in 2012 and a 16th-ranked Ole Miss team were always going to be difficult games to come away from unscathed.
Fortunately for the Hogs, the back half of the schedule eases up a bit in terms of difficulty. Sure, Arkansas does have to travel to take on the No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, but the Razorbacks will only have one game away from home in the remaining five matchups of the season — a road tilt with the Florida Gators.
Can Arkansas take advantage of a favorable home schedule against Mississippi State, Auburn, Florida International and Missouri? Possibly, but it'll mean fixing a lot of the issues in the program first. Before focusing on the future of the program too much, let's take one last look at the first six games of the season and hand out grades for each position group.
QUARTERBACK - C+
By this point of the year, I expected it to be easy to find Superman-like highlights of KJ Jefferson on social media. Everyone remembers what the Razorbacks' signal caller did against BYU in 2022, for example. But look now, and you'll be hard-pressed to find anything noteworthy.
Through the first six games of competition, Jefferson has completed 67.1% of his passes for 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns to six interceptions. Those six picks are a career-high in a single season for the Arkansas signal caller, and we're only at the halfway point of the 2023 campaign.
In addition, Jefferson has only run the ball for 136 yards and one rushing touchdown on 82 carries, good for a 1.7-yard-per-carry average. That is far below what is expected of the dual-threat playmaker. From 2021-22, Jefferson carried the ball 304 times for 1,304 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground.
Not everything can be pinned on Jefferson, though. A lack of pass protection from his offensive line hasn't made things easy for the gung-ho gunslinger, but it's clear that Jefferson's fit in offensive coordinator Dan Enos' scheme isn't as smooth as many hoped.
Can he improve? Sure. As a matter of fact, I expect nothing less with an easier schedule on the horizon. But for now, Jefferson receives an above-average grade for his play at the halfway mark of the 2023 season.
RUNNING BACKS - C-
If you told me before the year that Raheim "Rocket" Sanders would have under 100 rushing yards at the midway point of the season, I wouldn't have believed you. But here we are, and the Preseason All-SEC First Team running back has just 91 yards on the ground off of 34 carries.
It's important to point out that Sanders missed three games after suffering a knee injury in the season opener against Western Carolina, so part of the lack of production can be blamed on that. However, since his return against Texas A&M and Ole Miss, Sanders has only run the ball 19 times for 49 yards. Not exactly lighting the world on fire.
We can't overlook the other running backs on the roster, either. In Sanders' absence, running backs Rashod Dubinion and AJ Green took over the brunt of the ball-carrying duties. Against Kent State and BYU, Green combined for 168 yards and two touchdowns off of 24 carries and has 195 total yards on the year.
In matchups against Kent State, BYU and LSU, Dubinion ran the ball 38 times for 159 yards and one touchdown and he sits at 187 total yards on the ground for the year.
Much like the quarterback position, some of the blame for the 112th-ranked rushing offense (111.5 yards per game) is on the offensive line. Time and time again, Arkansas' running backs just simply have nowhere to run.
In the end, a rushing attack that ranked seventh in the country in 2021 (227.8 YPG) and 2022 (236.5 YPG) should be much better than it is right now.
WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS - C+
It was never going to be easy to replace guys like Matt Landers and Jadon Haselwood from last year's team. Add in the fact that contributors Ketron Jackson Jr., Warren Thompson and Trey Knox transferred out of the program as well, and the Razorbacks had some work to do in the offseason to get good receiving threats for Jefferson.
Still, Arkansas did a solid job in the transfer portal, picking up Andrew Armstrong (Texas A&M-Commerce), Isaac TeSlaa (Hillsdale College) and Tyrone Broden (Bowling Green) from the ranks of the Group of Five, FCS and Division II football. On top of that, Pittman raked in four-star tight end prospect Luke Hasz and nabbed Freshman All-American Var'Keyes Gumms from North Texas along with Louisville transfer Francis Sherman.
Through the first six games of the season, only two of those players have had significant contributions to the offense. Armstrong has caught a team-leading 35 passes for 437 yards and four touchdowns. Before sustaining a season-ending injury (broken clavicle) against Texas A&M, Hasz made 16 catches for 253 yards and three touchdowns.
The combined stats of all the other offseason additions? 23 receptions for 252 yards and two touchdowns.
Returning reciever Jaedon Wilson has made his presence known with eight catches for 136 yards and a touchdown, but lacks the consistency to be relied upon in crucial situations. That one touchdown was a 65-yard touchdown on the first drive of the season.
Redshirt freshman tight end Tyrus Washington had a breakout performance against Ole Miss last week, as he caught seven passes for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
There's still a lot of upside to this group. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see them explode during the latter half of the season, but for now, they earn a slightly above-average grade from me.
OFFENSIVE LINE - F
Yeah, you all knew what this position group's grade was going to be. Every single offensive issue the Razorbacks have can be traced back to poor offensive line play.
Jefferson missing his marks on receivers? Not enough time in the pocket. Running backs getting tackled behind the line of scrimmage? Not enough room to run. Receivers not getting open? Not enough time for them to in the first place.
The offensive line has allowed 23 sacks through the first six games of the season, the same amount allowed during the entirety of 2022.
Named Preseason All-SEC Second Team by the league's coaches, left guard Brady Latham has been a shell of his former self up to this point.
Manning the tackle spots are up-and-comers Andrew Chamblee and Patrick Kutas, who are still probably a year away from being able to handle edge rushers in the SEC.
Left tackle Devon Manuel was supposed to be one of the top five offensive lineman going into the year, but a string of injuries have left him with less playing time than everyone had hoped.
The all-around best lineman on the team right now is probably Florida transfer Joshua Braun, but even he hasn’t been perfect.
Truth be told, Arkansas likely should have put more of a focus on picking up some more quality offensive lineman in the transfer portal during the offseason to offset the departures of Luke Jones, Ricky Stromberg and Dalton Wagner.
According to Pro Football Focus, the Razorbacks have a pass blocking grade of 51.2 and run blocking grade of 65.4. Those two numbers average out to 58.3, so it feels right that the offensive line should earn an "F" for their performance at the midway point of the season.
