Hogs’ Coach Pittman and QB K.J. Jefferson looking forward to playing the Rebels in a Homecoming, of sorts, for Jefferson
Arkansas QB K.J. Jefferson is a Sardis, Miss. native who will lead the Hogs against the Rebels Saturday
OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss will be celebrating its homecoming this week, but there will be a player not wearing red and blue who will be celebrating a homecoming as well.
Arkansas quarterback, K.J. Jefferson, is from nearby Sardis and played his high school football at North Panola High School. Jefferson is a sophomore on the Razorbacks roster, although this is his third season with the team. It is, however, his first shot at Ole Miss.
“He didn’t play last year against (Ole Miss), I’m sure it’s a big deal for him,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said on his radio show this week.
“We’ve tried to downplay it a little bit because we know in his heart and his mind he’s up-playing it. He’s a competitive son of a gun. I think he’ll have a good game. I think the team on both sides of the ball will rally around the fact he’s going home. We certainly hope they do.”
Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman on KJ Jefferson
Jefferson was on the sidelines two seasons ago in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, but did not get into the game. This time, about a half hour from his home, he will start against the Rebels.
“I’m feeling pumped. I’m very excited. I’ve got a lot of family members coming to the game to watch me play who have never been to a game.“
K.J. Jefferson on playing in Oxford
Jefferson did receive an offer from Ole Miss out of high school, but he chose to go to Fayetteville over the Rebels, Mississippi State, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt along with some schools outside of the Southeastern Conference.
“Ole Miss did recruit me,” Jefferson said. “I didn’t really think too much about them just because I wanted to get out of the state of Mississippi. Arkansas just kind of took it away.”
In high school, Jefferson led the Cougars to the Class 3A semifinals in 2018, throwing for 3,180 yards that season. He threw for over 3,000 yards in both his junior and senior seasons.
This season, Jefferson has completed 59.3 percent of his passes and six touchdowns. He has also run for 235 yards and two more scores. In the Hogs’ two biggest wins – over Texas and Texas A&M – Jefferson was a combined 21-of-34 for 340 yards. He had to shake off a knee injury against the Aggies, but managed to toss two touchdowns in the win.
KJ JEFFERSON WITH THE DIME@razorbackFB is off and running 🔥 pic.twitter.com/gUWIIcTxom
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) September 25, 2021
Last week, in a 37-0 loss at Georgia, Jefferson completed just 8-of-13 for 65 yards, but he saw a lot of the game flat on his back as the Bulldogs sacked him three times.
The Razorbacks fell to No. 13 in the polls after the shutout. Now, like No. 17 Ole Miss, the Razorbacks will need to put that loss behind them and look to this week.
“What I decided was we need to move on,” Pittman said.
“We’ve got good coaches and they went over what we need to improve on from the game. Our players, there were a lot of tears — it was tough on us Saturday. That’s what you want to see; you want to see it means something to them, and I knew it did. At some point you can’t let that loss end up being two. You can’t let Georgia beat you when we play Ole Miss. We moved on.”
Coach Pittman on moving on from Georgia game
Although Arkansas and Mississippi share a border, there is not much crossover on the team’s rosters. Besides Jefferson, Jalen Williams of Tylertown is the only Mississippi native for the Razorbacks.
The Ole Miss roster features just three Arkansas natives: Jadon Jackson (Centerton), Andrew Griffith (Bentonville) and Jayden Williams (Conway).
Next Up:
The game kicks off at 11 a.m., and it is the second of three consecutive early starts for the Razorbacks.
ESPN will broadcast the game with Joe Tessatore handling the play-by-play with Greg McElroy serving as the color analyst and Katie George will be the sideline reporter,
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
