Razorback head football coach Sam Pittman questions an interference call on the field at the Hogs' game versus Alabama at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman expects to near full strength when his team takes on Auburn Saturday.

The Hogs and Auburn are both coming off bye weeks. Arkansas entered it with a banged-up secondary missing six defensive backs against BYU once cornerback Malik Chavis exited the game. Safety Jalen Catalon and cornerback LaDarrius Bishop are out for the season, but Pittman expects to have Chavis, Jayden Johnson, Myles Slusher and Khari Johnson back on Saturday.

"I believe so," Pittman said. "I think we’ll be again as healthy as we’ve been all year. I think we’re going to have everybody who’s not out of the season, I think we’ll have them back. Slush has been fine. He’s been healthy, full speed and knocking the rust off a little bit. The guy I like back there who’s doing a good job is (Quincey) McAdoo. We moved him over. I think he’s playing well over there on that side of the ball. Jayden seems to be back 100 percent. Had to knock a little rust off because he hadn’t played in a while, but other than that, they’ve had a really good week."

McAdoo is a true freshman from Clarendon who signed with the Hogs as a wide receiver. But once the injuries started piling up in the secondary McAdoo offered to move over there. On defense at Clarendon, McAdoo had 58 tackles, two for loss, an interception and returned a fumble 88 yards for a touchdown. Is he nearing ready to help?

"I hope so," Pittman said. "Very talented. He played defensive back in high school as well as wide receiver. His hand seems to be healing up, as well, and he looks like a natural over there. It’s always a little different when somebody asks to move over versus you moving them. He saw an opportunity there and he’s taken full advantage of it. I like him a lot over there."

KJ Jefferson, Offense

While the defense is getting healthy quarterback KJ Jefferson is hoping to duplicate what the offense did against BYU.

The Hogs rolled up 644 yards of total offense against BYU including 277 on the ground. Jefferson completed 29 of 40 passes for 367 yards and five touchdowns. He also had 10 carries for 32 yards.

"Yes, we've had a great week of practice so far just being on a balanced attack throwing the ball and doing some RPO games," Jefferson said. "We know we're going to try to run the ball on them. We know they're trying to stop the run. So, we're going to balance it out and do a couple RPOs and stuff like that. So far, we've been practicing a balanced attack on the offensive side of the ball."

During the bye week, Jefferson didn't throw at all. He talked about what it was like Monday when he returned to the practice field.

"The first day it kind of got back to me being able to just throw again," Jefferson said. "My arm kind of got tightened up on me because I hadn't been throwing. Now, just the rest and recovery from me throwing so much and being able to get that time off has truly helped me out. Just being able to come out there fresh and have fun and throw the ball around."

The play everyone is still talking about was Jefferson escaping at least three defenders who appeared to have him sacked only to find tight end Trey Knox for a 36-yard completion to the BYU 22. Arkansas scored three plays later on a pass from Jefferson Rashod Dubinion to take a 31-21 lead into intermission.

"He’s in the room and that’s why I’m laughing," Jefferson said with a wide smile. "We always work… Any time the quarterback breaks the pocket, the first place to look is the sideline. Trey was wide open, so he got quarterback friendly with me and I just wanted to be able to give him a good ball and the rest was history. He made a play, he’s athletic. All I had to do was just make sure I got him the ball and he handled the rest. Just being able to know football, great football IQ, just being able to get quarterback friendly when broke outside the pocket."

Knox had four receptions for 66 yards and one touchdown against BYU. He talked about the play when Jefferson was almost sacked, escaped and then had the awareness to find him on the sideline.

"I just had a little crossing route," Knox said. "I ran across the field and I saw him [about to be sacked seemingly]. I was like, ‘Aw, well, we’re about to get off the field I guess.’ Because it was third down. 

"Then I saw him spin, and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s about to break this.’ In my head I was thinking, ‘Hopefully the guy guarding me will run and try to tackle KJ. Then I’m definitely going to get the ball right here.’ And then he broke it, and everything came to fruition. 

"The guy guarding me ran at KJ, and KJ looked at me and threw me the ball. I was like, ‘Yes sir, time to slide.’ And so I took off running and made a play."

Earlier in the game, Jefferson had found Knox for a 6-yard touchdown pass.

Arkansas and Auburn will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.