By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said Monday he's feeling good on the chances of getting starting quarterback KJ Jefferson back for Saturday night's battle against No. 14 Ole Miss.

Jefferson missed his second game of the season this past Saturday as the Hogs fell to No. 7 LSU 13-10. Malik Hornsby and Cade Fortin combined to go 12-22 for 116 yards and one touchdowns in his place. Jefferson also missed the Mississippi State game earlier this fall. The Hogs fell 40-17 in that game.

"We anticipate him practicing," Pittman said. "We anticipate him practicing today. We anticipate him playing on Saturday. Those things certainly change. They have over the last two weeks, but he feels better than he has since the Auburn game. We'll have to see how he is at practice to be perfectly honest with you, but I know he feels better than he has in the last two weeks."

Against LSU, Fortin was 8 of 13 for 92 yards and the one touchdown. He also rushed five times for 17 yards. Hornsby was 4 of 9 passing for 23 yards. He also carried the ball 18 times for 37 yards. If Jefferson is unable to play will there be an open competition this week to see who starts?

"Yeah, it would be an open competition," Pittman said. "I think, obviously, the problem we have a little bit is the unknowing of KJ in game-planning. It was a little easier if Malik is the guy because there are some similar talents, run and dual-threat, even though Cade made some nice runs the other day in the game. I think our team and our staff, we just want to know if he's going to be available or not, if he's going to play. I think our team needs him, or we need to go the entire week and say he's not going to. I think a lot of that will be said today. Cade and Malik will battle for who would play in that second spot if KJ is not able to."

Fortin started against Mississippi State, but Hornsby came in and had more success. On Saturday Hornsby started against LSU, but Fortin came off the bench to provide much bigger spark. In addition to Jefferson, Arkansas was also missing right tackle Dalton Wagner on Saturday. Pittman talked about Wagner's status on Monday.

"He's going to practice some today," Pittman said. "My philosophy on it is that we don't ever really say a kid is out if he can do something. What we do is we always go to indy, and we check him to see where he's at in individual and if he's capable of doing a little bit more. The philosophy is to get them out to practice, and sometimes they’re not as hurt or not as sore or not as whatever as they think they are.

"Obviously if you’ve got the right kid, he wants to play. Our coaches can look at him, I can look at him, get a feel of it. That’s what we’re going to do with Dalton today to see what he can do and the length of time with also being smart. We’re going in spiders today just like we did last Monday. Kind of see how far he can go."

Ty'Kieast Crawford filled in for Wagner against the talented LSU defense. Pittman talked about how the junior did in his first SEC start.

"You know, Ty'Kieast, and Cody (Kennedy) and I were just talking about it before I came over here, I thought for his first start against a really, really good opponent in LSU, I thought he did a really good job," Pittman said. "I did. I mean, obviously, the sack at the end of the game, but yet even that one there was, you know, our running back bumped him, you know. Now, he was getting beat and things, but our running back bumped his left hip and had him open even faster. But I thought for his first start and all those things, I thought he held up pretty pretty darn good."

In addition to injuries, safety Myles Slusher and defensive back Anthony Brown were suspended for the LSU game due to a legal issue the previous weekend. Pittman was asked about their status for the Ole Miss game?

"I don’t know exactly yet what we’re going to do," Pittman said. "They’re going to practice. Obviously Ant is on the scout team, so he’ll go there. Slusher will go back up with the defense — not the scout team — and we’ll make a decision. Wednesday, I’ll know for sure at that time. I’ve got to make that decision by then, for sure."

Arkansas and Ole Miss will kickoff at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night and televised on the SEC Network.