Razorbacks have to be careful not to set Jordan up for perceived failure

Mix in the literal physical reactions fans have when they first see Jordan and his immense size popping up in the background of various videos coming out of the Razorbacks' preseason camp, and there's more than enough anticipation for a freshman to deal with after technically being on the team for only a few days.

Over the past few months, Pittman has found himself bragging on Jordan all the time totally unprovoked, setting expectations unreasonably high with Hogs fans. The former Lumberjack is becoming the Paul Bunyan and John Henry of receivers rolled into one with how these coaches keep talking him up.

"Lot of talent, he can run," Pittman said. "He's run well over 20 (mph) using GPS. Can catch the ball, can go up and get the ball. We saw that out of high school ... there's really no deficiency there that would not allow him to play. Now he's got some guys he's got to beat out, but we think he's very capable and I think he's going to be exceptional. I don't want to put pressure on him, he's young, but I think he's going to be an exceptional talent."

Pittman says he doesn't want to put pressure on the young man, but Jordan was wrapping up high school last spring while his future freshman teammates were getting a jump start learning the playbook and developing chemistry with Hogs' starting quarterback Taylen Green.

Despite this decided disadvantage, Pittman was building up the player who wasn't there far more than the ones who were. He used words like "supreme talent" and "the Taj Mahal baby!"

“Antonio Jordan made some really good catches,” Pittman told reporters this past Friday. “I mean, he’s hard to cover because he’s so tall and he can run. You look at him and you’re going ‘He’s a big target that we hope you can run,’ and all that.

And it's true. Jordan has jumped out to pretty much anyone watching during fall camp.

However, he's doing this in an ideal setting. He's running basic drills that allow his natural gifts to shine and when he faces the Razorbacks defense, it's as vanilla and stripped down as it gets.

“We knew he could run and he showed that today," Pittman said. "Was good in one on ones as well when they were playing man coverage on him. He showed out.”

However, talk to anyone who has ever eventually found success in the Petrino offense as a pass catcher and he will tell you it took more than a full season to figure it out and run things at full speed. There's a lot of thinking and reading once play advances to an in-game level that slows down a naturally gifted athlete at first until it finally becomes instinctual.

Right now, fans probably expect large numbers out of Jordan with all the superlatives freely thrown his way. However, he's just now getting to learn the playbook, which is hard enough in itself without throwing in midplay adjustments that need to automatically happen exactly as expected.

History says those big numbers aren't coming until 2026 no matter how gifted Jordan is. Greg Childs had 18 catches for 273 yards his freshman year and he supposedly picked up the offense quicker than most.

Greg Childs had one catch for 25 yards and Jarius Wright had 19 catches for 348. Even Treylon Burks, who wasn't in an offense quite as complex as Petrino's, didn't break the 500 yard receiving mark with 29 catches for 475 his freshman season.

Jordan may make a splash in his opening game against Alabama A&M. There's an opportunity there for him to follow a basic "hear route, run route" formula where his athleticism and size allows him to beat his man before any reads or adjustments would have to be made.

However, for the next couple of months after that, he's going to be pretty well covered. Those adjustments are going to be needed against better quality competition, and it's often easy to see receivers thinking as they run early on in the Petrino offense.

He will be slower for a while until he begins to figure it all out late in the season. It will nullify his natural gifts to an extent.

Fans are going to want large numbers, but if he makes 15-20 catches for a shade over 300 yards, he will have been highly successful. Unfortunately, the hype train has gotten to out of hand already, so Hogs fans may not be able to see it that way.

It's not a knock on Jordan. It's simply a part of the process every receiver has to go through.

They enter it looking like and thinking they are unstoppable. However, it's not until it all clicks together after a long time of running the offense that they actually are unstoppable.

So, in the need to latch onto something to feel great about this season, don't raise expectations for Jordan higher than they should be.

He was just walking high school halls a few weeks ago. He will need time.

The Taj Mahal didn't just spring up in a few weeks, but man was it a thing of beauty to behold once it was finished. Worth the wait.

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