Sam Pittman provides injury update on Myles Slusher

After Arkansas dropped its third straight game Saturday to Mississippi State, coach Sam Pittman provided an injury update on safety Myles Slusher. Although Slusher was unable to go and missed his third game of the season, Pittman anticipates him coming back some point this season.

“I think Slusher’s gonna be OK, but certainly no way he could’ve played today,” the coach said postgame. “We had to make a medical decision there and no way he could’ve played today.”

Slusher, a starting safety, injured his calf in the second quarter last week against Alabama. It was just his second game back from an undisclosed upper-body injury suffered in Week 1 that caused him to miss the next two weeks. In Week 4 against Texas A&M — the only full game he has played this season — Slusher recorded six tackles and one pass defended.

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The Razorbacks certainly could have used Slusher on Saturday, as its secondary surrendered 395 yards passing and three touchdowns to Bulldogs quarterback Will Rogers. Mississippi State got off to a 21-3 start and never looked back on its way to a dominant 40-17 victory.

After starting off 3-0, Arkansas now finds itself 3-3 (1-3 SEC) at the midway point this season. The Razorbacks will hope Slusher can return and they can turn things around next week for a road matchup against No. 16 BYU next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT.

Sam Pittman provides injury update on KJ Jefferson

Myles Slusher was not the only Razorbacks player out with injury Saturday. Starting quarterback KJ Jefferson was also held out with a concussion, and Pittman provided an update on his status as well postgame.

“After Thursday when we’re going, he had a little bit of a headache on Thursday,” Pittman said after the Razorbacks lost to the Bulldogs. “A mild headache and I’m going ‘OK that’s — I’m not doing it.’ And Dave and them were with me, as well, but at that point I said ‘Hey, look, you practiced on Wednesday, we’re going to take you, but that’s it. We’re not going to do it.’”

In place of Jefferson, Arkansas featured Malik Hornsby at quarterback. The redshirt sophomore went 8-for-17 passing for 234 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Hornsby is, like Jefferson, a legitimate running threat, too. He rushed eight times for 114 yards.

Based on Pittman’s postgame comments, Jefferson should be back this week. And instead of the usual SEC West onslaught, Arkansas will be traveling to Provo to face BYU.

“In all honesty, I think we can bring him in and get him, he’s had some running and some things that they have to test, you know what I mean? He just hasn’t been hit,” Pittman said. “So I think we can bump him around a bit, even tomorrow, and have him cleared-cleared for Monday.”

On3’s Andrew Graham contributed to this report.