Arkansas Football: 3 storylines to follow in spring 2021

1. The quarterback battle

No doubt about it, Feleipe Franks was a breath of fresh air in Fayetteville. For years, the Razorbacks had fielded mediocre quarterbacks and had gotten nothing but average, at best, play out of them. Franks was a step above, transferring in from Florida and reviving what seemed to be a career on the way down following an injury in 2019.

Franks was given a second chance by Sam Pittman and he didn’t disappoint, passing for 2,107 yards and 17 touchdowns with only four picks and a 69 percent completion rate.

But it wasn’t Franks’ numbers that made him so valuable — although those were helpful — it was actually his leadership. Guys looked up to him because he had the experience and he knew what it took to win. Arkansas finished just 3-7, but that’s wildly impressive given the fact that the program had zero SEC wins in two years of Chad Morris.

Now Pittman must replace the quarterback who gave his new program a shot in the arm and it’s not going to be easy to choose between KJ Jefferson and the young star Malik Hornsby.

Jefferson has the experience and even got some action last year in place of an ailing Franks, at times, passing for 295 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for another 67 and two scores. He didn’t throw a pick, but his completion rate was under 50 percent on 41 attempts.

Will Jefferson’s accuracy be improved enough this spring to sew up the starting job or will Hornsby just come in and swipe it from the redshirt sophomore?