Two of the Greatest Arkansas Quarterbacks Ever Stood Feet Apart in a Bank Friday

With Matt Jones, KJ Jefferson surrounded by hundreds of Razorback fans in Hot Springs, one has to wonder which is the best rushing QB in Hogs' history

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Jul 28, 2023 4:19 PM EDT

In this story:

Arkansas Razorbacks

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The lobby in the Hot Springs Armor Bank was full. Fans, many with small children in tow filed past a cut-out of Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson in hopes of landing an autograph and a few seconds conversation with the actual man. A few feet away, broadcasting alongside his partner, Razorback baseball voice Phil Elson, sat legendary Arkansas quarterback Matt Jones.

Two of the greatest rushing quarterbacks in Razorback history occupied the same space, brought together for what Jones said was the third time, through the magic of modern NIL deals. A bank looking to make a splash had collectively negotiated the greatest meeting of quarterback rushing talent in program history.

The initial thought of having these two together is the amount of insight that can be gained by from hearing the two talk about their shared experience as high profile quarterbacks at Arkansas. Unfortunately, the swarm of people waiting on Jefferson prevented that from happening. Missed was the opportunity to hear whether there will be trash talk regarding the Arkansas rushing record for a quarterback when Jefferson and Jones cross paths.

Had there been, it would have been a one-sided affair. As prolific as Jefferson has been running the ball, he is no threat to the monster numbers Jones put up during his time leading the Razorbacks. Heading into his fifth season, the freight train approach of Jefferson has no chance of running down the gazelle-like method Jones used to blow past defenders for long run after long run.

Jefferson is so far behind, he would need 1,106 yards and 5 touchdowns on the ground to tie Jones. To put that in perspective, Jefferson rushed for 1,304 yards the last two seasons combined while averaging 7.5 touchdowns. There's a chance he might pass Jones' 24 career touchdown runs, but there's no hope of Jefferson passing him in overall yards.

Now that doesn't mean Jefferson isn't as good as Jones was in the running game. The stats up front make Jones look decisively better in the running game, but that's not the whole picture. Jones has that kind of edge because he started all four seasons at Arkansas. Right out the gate as a freshman, Jones dropped 592 yards rushing and five touchdowns before he injured his shoulder, hampering him in the passing game. His most prolific season was his junior year when Jones ran for 707 yards and eight touchdowns.

The other two seasons, Jones ran for 614 and 622 yards, giving him a career average of 648 yards rushing per season. He also averaged six touchdowns per season with the eight his junior year being his career high. And this is where Jefferson gains an edge for bragging rights.

Jones will almost certainly keep the overall rushing record, especially considering offensive coordinator Dan Enos and head coach Sam Pittman agree that limiting Jefferson's rushing attempts is in the best interest of success for the Razorbacks this year. However, average yards per season as a starter is probably going to Jefferson.

As a result of being built like an NFL linebacker while maintaining the gifts of an elite SEC quarterback, Jefferson has been anything if not consistent in generating yardage against tough SEC defenses. He put up 664 yards in 2021 and 640 yards in 2022. Both exceed all but one of Jones' season stats. Of course, that comes with one caveat. Jones got his 707 in 13 games. Had Jefferson been able to play in the two games he missed, he would have projected out to 757 yards. It should be noted that when it comes to touchdowns scored, Jefferson exceeds or ties Jones' two best seasons.

So, if Jones gets to have the best overall rushing career, but Jefferson has the best career when it comes to rushing average and scoring as a starter, then this must be a tie. That is unless the numbers are dug into a little deeper.

There's the easy way out by simply adding up number of wins over the two best years. Jones led the Razorbacks to a pair of 9-win seasons in his two best years with seasons of seven and five wins in his other two years. Jefferson has a 9-win season and a 7-win season also while staring at a schedule that lends itself to the possibility of nine wins. Even if wins were a factor in a rushing argument, it's a statistic that appears to be well on its way to being a wash also.

No, the one stat that directly applies to how prolific each of these Arkansas quarterbacks are on the field is yards per carry. Jefferson is a high volume quarterback. At times it was as if Briles forgot he had a stable of highly effective running backs. Jefferson had carries of 146 and 158 for averages of 4.5 yards and 4.1 yards per carry in 2021 and 2022 respectively. That gives him exactly as many carries as running backs Rashod Dubinion and AJ Green combined last season. No wonder his body has taken such a beating.

As for Jones, he achieved his numbers on almost half as many carries. His senior season, Jones reached 622 yards, just 18 yards shy of Jefferson's total last season, on 83 carries. That's 75 fewer carries to generate essentially the same production. The year Jones ran for 707 yards and eight touchdowns, he did it in 93 carries. That's 53 fewer carries than Jefferson's best seasons when the current Arkansas quarterback ran for 664 yards and nine touchdowns.

Jones blew Jefferson away on yards per carry. His freshman, junior and senior seasons saw an average of 8.0, 7.4 and 7.5 yards respectively. Even Jones' worst season by a long shot, an average of 4.8 his sophomore season, outpaced the best Jefferson could muster.

Then again, if this is stretched to the whole quarterback performance, Jefferson threw for almost as many yards in the past two seasons as Jones threw for his entire four years as a starter. Barring injury, Jefferson will pass Jones' production of 8,180 yards of total offense sometime around September. Still, Jones could argue that he did it in four years while Jefferson took five. Either way, two of the greatest running quarterbacks in Arkansas history breathed the same air on Friday and that can't be disputed.

But are they the greatest? After all, Greg Thomas and Quinn Grovey played during one of the most prolific eras for running quarterbacks in football history as the option took hold. The answer still remains yes.

Thomas may have dominated from a wins perspective and was a strong runner, but he only mustered 1,169 yards rushing over four seasons. As for Grovey, he too won a ton of games and currently leads Jefferson with 1,746 rushing yards, but, barring a catastrophic injury in September, that will change. He also comes nowhere near Jefferson nor Jones in yards per carry. Grovey was also dominant in overall offense with 6,242 yards, but both quarterbacks have far surpassed that number.

So, as fans stood in a bank in Hot Springs, head swiveling back and forth between Jones and Jefferson, it was truly a historic moment. There's still one more season left to determine whom it will be, but no matter how it turns out, the two greatest rushing quarterbacks in school history sat feet from one another Friday in a room filled with Razorback fans. That's over two miles and counting of rushing greatness.