Sam Pittman explains how Landon Jackson has improved this spring

Arkansas is looking to shake off a 2022 season that fell a little short of expectations, and retooling the defensive front could be a big part of it. Head coach Sam Pittman likes the look of his defensive line, and former LSU transfer Landon Jackson is a big part of that.

Jackson transferred from LSU after playing in just five games as a freshman. But when he arrived, he wasn’t quite in great playing shape.

“I think if you look back, Landon, he had come off an ACL, he was tall and thin,” Pittman explained. “I mean he was skinny and he was playing about three-quarters speed. He got a little bit better as the year went on.”

Landon Jackson played in 13 games for the Razorbacks and started in seven of them, proving a valuable asset up front.

He totaled 23 tackles, 3.5 tackles for a loss, 3.0 sacks, a forced fumble and a pass breakup. Those numbers could improve in a major way if Pittman’s comments about the 6-foot-7, 269-pound defensive lineman are any indication.

“Now he’s bigger, confident, long and he’s a problem now,” Pittman said. “A good problem, he’s on our team. But he’s a problem if you’re an offensive lineman. It’s just his speed and his size right now that, I mean he’s been hard to block.”

Landon Jackson is a former four-star recruit in the 2021 class, ranked as the No. 177 overall player in the nation by the On3 Industry Rankings. He checked in as the No. 15 edge defender in the class and the No. 30 overall player from the state of Texas, hailing from Texarkana (Texas) Pleasant Grove.

Defensive line dominated first scrimmage

Arkansas has been through a pair of scrimmages already this spring ahead of its final showing in the annual spring game, and one thing that stood out in the first scrimmage was the run game.

Despite the fact that Arkansas has a terrific tailback in Raheim Sanders, the Razorbacks weren’t able to generate much consistently on the ground.

That’s further evidence of guys like Jackson improving up front on the defensive line.

“I don’t think the run game was good,” Pittman said. “A lot of zero-yardage gains. A lot of negative yardage gains. Now, you’re looking at ones, twos, and threes — things of that nature. AJ (Green) had a nice run. Rashod (Dubinion), it wasn’t one of his better days. Didn’t have a lot of area to run. But AJ made a few plays and Rocket (Sanders) certainly made a few guys miss and ran over a few guys and made some yards. But the run game, if we were playing a game, it would have been not successful for the day.”

Arkansas will host its annual spring game at noon on Saturday.