3 takeaways from Ryan Silverfield's press conference previewing Arkansas-Utah

Jackson Fuller details some key takeaways from Ryan Silverfield's Monday press conference previewing Arkansas football vs Utah. View More Video Transcript After a slight dud in week one, the first big test of the Arkansas football season is on the horizon. I'm Jackson Fuller with USA Today Sports. Just got done talking to head coach Ryan Silverfield on Monday, previewing the upcoming week two matchup, which is a road trip to number twenty-one Utah. Arkansas heads to the altitude of Salt Lake City to face the Big Twelve opponent. Here are some key takeaways from Silverfield's press conference. Number one, overall with the offense, there needs to be a better balance between taking shots down the field and then settling for what the defense gives. He thinks that's the biggest key for KJ Jackson to take the next step and improve upon his week one performance. There are times when KJ needs to pull the trigger, let it go to the receivers down the field, and then other times go through your reads and instead of maybe trying to do too much, take the checkdown, find the running backs coming out of the backfield. Those are the things Silverfield wants to see from KJ, and he thinks if Arkansas can open it up and take some better shots down the field, that'll make life easier for the running backs and the offensive line and create some openings on the ground. Of course, Arkansas really struggled running the football against North Alabama with only three yards per carry. On the injury front, he is still monitoring the status of Quincy Rhodes. The defensive end did not start against North Alabama because he was not a full participant in practice in the week prior. Quincy only had one tackle in week one. I thought it was a little bit noticeable maybe that he wasn't have-- he didn't have the same type of explosion that we're used to seeing from him. It's gonna be an important week of practice for Quincy to gain reps, gain confidence, and hopefully get back into that starting lineup for the Utah game, 'cause this Arkansas defense needs Quincy at his best, fully firing for them to reach their ceiling this season. And then when it comes to Utah, it's a l-- all about stopping quarterback Devin Dampier, a terrific athlete. He can throw, he can run, beats defenses in so many ways. Coach Silverfield called it a triple-option style of RPO where he can keep it, he can hand it off, he can throw the slant. It's going to be very interesting to see how Arkansas decides to tackle the challenge that is Devin Dampier. Does Arkansas maybe load up and force Dampier to beat them down the field? Do they try and take away the pass? Regardless, stopping Devin Dampier, limiting and h-- and I-- from my view, limiting his success on the ground is priority number one for Arkansas this week. So we'll talk to you later this week with some keys to the game, Arkansas versus Utah. Follow along swdimes.com. Thanks for watching. Talk to you soon. Close