Hogs' early-season slate features Texas trio with QB battles
Arkansas has quite the run of schools from the Lone Star State in 2021. While Rice, Texas, and Texas A&M all reside in different conferences (for now), one commonality between the teams has been a quarterback battle entering fall camp.
With these three teams lined up within the first four weeks of the Razorbacks’ season, the starting quarterbacks named for Week 1 would be safe bets for Sam Pittman’s staff to game plan for.
Jimbo Fisher’s Aggies enter 2021 with College Football Playoff hopes, but must replace someone who Arkansas fans became all too familiar with in Kellen Mond. Mond finished his career 4-0 against the Razorbacks, with three of those decided by a touchdown or less.
With Mond’s departure, the battle was left to Haynes King and former Hawaii quarterback Zach Calzada. Both hold limited game experience as Mond’s backup, with King assuming the role from Calzada in 2020.
On Wednesday, Fisher told ESPN 97.5’s John Granato and Lance Zierlein that he has his starter for the Aggies’ opener against Kent State.
“We talked to him yesterday, and right now Haynes will be our starter, and Zach (Calzada) will be the backup right now, but we had a great talk yesterday and I feel comfortable with both guys,” Fisher said. “That’s how we’ll go into this first game, but like I always say, those things are ever-changing.
“I mean you don’t want them to change, but at the same time (you have to look at) competition and guys get better, and how guys play and also the roles and what might be needed for each game.”
Fox’s national college football correspondent RJ Young cosigns the decision Fisher made, going as far as saying he’s the most talented prospect to suit up for the Aggies at quarterback since Kyler Murray led the offense in 2015.
Meanwhile, in Austin, first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian has been less than thrilled with how the Longhorns’ camp has shaped up at the quarterback position. Junior Casey Thompson entered the season as the presumed favorite for the job, but according to those around the program, that security may have evaporated.
Despite throwing just three passes as a freshman in 2020, Hudson Card appears to have leapfrogged Thompson for the starting job following a strong finish to the camp season.
Though everything may have worked out for the Longhorns, there were some bumps in the road. Sarkisian made national headlines following the team’s first scrimmage for his disappointment with the quarterback play from both parties.
"Neither guy played up to the standard that I view as acceptable, and I think what they view as acceptable,” Sarkisian said. “And that's part of the process. Both guys going into next week have to take the practice reps and then apply it to the scrimmage next Saturday."
Fortunately for Sarkisian, the battle appeared to have ended with time to prepare Card for the grueling two-game opening slate against No. 23 Louisiana and Arkansas.
“I thought they had a really good week,” Sarkisian said. “We challenged them after that first scrimmage, and I thought they had a good first three days coming off the scrimmage.”
He finished with something any fan wants to hear, and that’s that the two played “winning football” in the most recent scrimmage. While no formal decision has been made, if media reports are to be believed, then Texas finds itself as one of the deepest rooms Arkansas will face in 2021.
The most pressing battle for Arkansas coaches and fans also happens to be the one without a clear frontrunner. Rice will come into town Sept. 4, there’s no question about that, but who will be under center remains to be seen.
The Owls entered the offseason in a two-man race for the position, but the addition of former Nebraska quarterback Luke McCaffrey (yep, that McCaffrey) muddied the waters for Mike Bloomgren’s staff.
Conway native Jovoni Johnson assumed the starting role in Rice’s upset of Marshall, earning himself a starting opportunity against UAB the following week. Despite passing for a career-high 139 yards and a touchdown prior to leaving the game with an injury, Johnson looks to be a non-factor in the race for the starting job.
In the mix is Wiley Green, who finished the season finale against the Blazers in relief of Johnson. Green has ten career starts under his belt, but found himself the third guy on the depth chart in 2020. This season, he’s looking to bounce back into the starting role using the intangibles he’s picked up in his time on the bench.
“I learned a lot in those two years,” Green said. “One of the big things is confidence. I was really confident in my ability to execute the system, but sometimes you have to be really confident in playing football.”
The other name to watch is the younger brother of none other than Christian McCaffrey. Luke started his career under Scott Frost at Nebraska, but decided to enter his name into the transfer portal following a redshirt season in which he couldn’t steal the starting job from Adrian Martinez.
A two-week stint at Louisville ended with a re-commitment to Rice in June. One reason Rice wound up with the former three-star is ties to Bloomgren, which began at nine years old when his brother played under the coach at Stanford.
“He’s a big influence and a big reason of why I decided to come here,” McCaffrey said. “He has the capability to help me learn the things that you need in order to be a quarterback moving forward. That was the biggest pull for me, just to have the ability and resources to help grow with the people around me at Rice.”
Bloomgren hasn’t given media much of anything regarding his thoughts on the battle, and from the little he’s said, it seems as though that trend may continue up to game week.
“I think Wiley’s incredibly comfortable in this system — looks comfortable from the time he’s calling a play in the huddle until he breaks it and gets the ball out,” Bloomgren said. “And there’s things Luke does really natural and really good.
“This is a little different too because we’ve got a guy who’s coming into camp, wasn’t here in spring ball, didn’t even start the summer with the rest of the guys and we want to give him an adequate opportunity to compete for this job. The thing is, we have great trust in Wiley. I don’t feel the need to call a winner any time soon.”
One thing’s for sure - we’ll see who the Owls trot out on Sept. 4 when they open the season in Fayetteville for a 1 p.m. CT kickoff which will be streamed on SEC Network-Plus and ESPN-Plus.