Sam Pittman reaffirms confidence in Malik Hornsby, provides timeline on QB decision

As Arkansas prepares to face LSU this week, Sam Pittman is facing the possibility of starting Malik Hornsby at quarterback in light of the shoulder injury to KJ Jefferson. Although Pittman could not confirm in his Wednesday press conference whether Jefferson would play, he did assert his confidence in Hornsby to step in should he have to.

“Certainly Malik practiced well last week and has practiced well this week,” the coach said. “We believe in him. I think there’s a misconception that we don’t believe in Malik, but we believe in KJ and I think he’s proven that we should. But we certainly have belief in Malik that we can go in there and win the game with him. So we’ve got to take all those factors in and see where we go from there after today, tomorrow.”

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A former four-star recruit and the No. 13 quarterback in the 2020 class according to On3 Consensus, Hornsby started once already this season when Jefferson was out against Mississippi State. He finished that game 8-of-17 passing for 234 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions while adding 114 yards rushing.

Sam Pittman noted that Malik Hornsby has similar strengths to Jefferson, but also expects the offense to approach things slightly different should Hornsby get the start.

“We’re very confident with him running all of it,” he said. “I do think he has a lot of similar skillsets as KJ and then some different. So certainly if he’s the quarterback Saturday, we would have a few different plays for his skillset than possibly what KJ’s is. We’re prepared for a couple of similar, yet different game plans if that makes sense.”

Pittman went on to compare this week’s decision on Jefferson to how the team approached last week against Liberty. For that game, Jefferson was listed as a game-time decision and ultimately ended up playing. But this week, Pittman is hopeful he can get enough information to make the call before then.

“I think there’s two (decisions) to be made,” he said. “One of ’em is, ‘Is he gonna play at all?’ Then the other one is, ‘Will he start the game?’ Some of those answers will be possibly today, some may be tomorrow. The good thing is that he wants to play. Last week was strictly a game-time decision. Go out there, throw, see how you feel. That’s what it was. After his shot, the steroid injection, we knew something like that was gonna be a game-time decision. We felt like he was gonna play if he could throw.

“I think this one here, you add into, are we gonna play him at all? Are we gonna start him? Or are we gonna just wait and see on game day and then make that decision? I don’t know. I’m hoping I can find out a little more at this afternoon’s practice.”

Arkansas is set to kick off against LSU at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday in Fayetteville.