Observations from Arkansas football's fifth spring practice

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas football held its fifth spring practice on Thursday, April 2, and the Razorbacks are gearing up for their first scrimmage of the preseason this weekend.

It was a windy day on the Walker Pavilion Outdoor Practice Fields, which made life difficult for the quarterbacks.

The Southwest Times Record spent time watching the gunslingers, the secondary and the offensive line. On Tuesday, we dissected the quarterbacks, defensive linemen and skill positions.

Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s practice.

Arkansas football quarterbacks struggle in team drills

It was a rough day for both KJ Jackson and AJ Hill in 11-on-11 action. Neither player could lead the offense to a score in two-minute drills, and their completion percentage came woefully shy of the 65% quarterbacks coach Mitch Stewart said that his room strides for in practice.

Jackson worked with the first-team offense and had a nice pass up the seam to Jamari Hawkins, but he failed to record another completion in the drill.

AJ Hill found receivers for short gains on each of his first four passes, but then he had four straight incompletions to end the drill. He was a unfortunate not to lead a scoring drive as freshman Dequane Prevo dropped a pass on third-down that would have gone for at least 15 yards.

There wasn’t much more success in another 11-on-11 drill later in practice. Hill showed decent chemistry with New Mexico transfer Donovan Faupel, but it’s obvious that the receivers and quarterbacks are still learning each other’s tendencies. On a different note, it was a good day for the Arkansas defensive backs.

Hogs’ secondary looks deeper

Maybe the regular season will make this claim look foolish, but it appears like Arkansas has upgraded its pass defense headed into the 2026 season.

Tulane transfer Jahiem Johnson is going to be the leading man at cornerback. He had a nice pass deflection in the two-minute drill where he anticipated Jackson’s throw and left his assigned receiver to make the play. He is the leader of the unit and goes first in all individual drills.

Behind him, it will be a healthy competition between Shelton Lewis (Clemson), La’Khi Roland (Maryland) and Braydon Lee (Maryland). The safety position has multiple options, but Carter Stoutmire (Colorado) looks the part of an SEC safety.

Khmori House was around the ball in 11-on-11 drills and looks like a cornerback. It’s no wonder the coaches have moved him to the secondary after House played linebacker for North Carolina last year.

Offensive line pecking order takes shape

The starters up front for Arkansas through the first four practices were left tackle Kavion Broussard, left guard Malachi Breland, center Caden Kitler, right guard Kobe Branham and right tackle Bryant Williams. There was a slight change on Thursday with Josiah Clemons replacing Broussard at left tackle.

Those six look to be at the top of the rotation. The interior should be a strangth, with Branham and Kitler returning as starters last season and Breland doing the same at Memphis. Kitler looked great on Thursday with explosive feet and good upper-body strength. He was consistently on the receiving end of compliments from offensive line coach Jeff Myers.

The key will be finding quality depth behind those six.

Adam Hawkes (Oregon State) looks like the next man up at tackle, with Davion Witherspoon (Ohio), Brooks Edmonson and Kash Courtney working with the second-team offense on the inside.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@usatodayco.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: What we saw at Arkansas football’s fifth spring practice