We keep talking about “last chances” for Chad Morris, but this is the last of the last chances. It’s pretty obvious that Arkansas cannot afford to bring Morris back for a third year if the Hogs lose this game. In fact, winning it alone may not be enough.
A strong performance would go a long way, so Morris is pulling out all the stops, announcing this week that he’s benching his transfer quarterbacks in favor of freshmen John Stephen Jones and K.J. Jefferson. It’s been a long time coming: both Ben Hicks and Nick Starkel have struggled to command Arkansas’ offense, and their stats have been disastrous: among qualified SEC quarterbacks, Hicks is the third-least accurate (26% of his passes are judged uncatchable) and Starkel is the third-most interceptible (14%).