Arkansas football: Razorbacks OC Kendal Briles discusses QB KJ Jefferson's growth

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"Yeah, KJ (had a) great, great year last year," Briles said. "You know, at the end of the day, it's about winning at the quarterback position. And do you win football games, do you win, and he was able to win games last year. And a lot of times, (he) put the team on his back. Really proud of where he's at as a leader on and off the field. Things that he needed to get better at — the RPO world that y'all are all familiar with and being able to put the ball in the belly of the running back and be able to snap real fast and get it out and be accurate with it, especially to moving targets. The SEC West is (all) tight windows and so you have to be very accurate with it.

"(Those are) the things we've been working on. Being able to be incredibly fast and compact with his release and get the ball out and then hit guys in the face, which was what we're trying to do. So he's done a really good job of that. And basically, his leadership I think has been just so key in the success of the offense moving forward."

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"A lot of confidence,” Pittman said. “Throwing the ball with velocity. Throwing the deep ball well. Threw a good one — or two — to Malik (Hornsby) today, actually. That was a nice catch he made on the very first play of team run. But what he’s done is, even though the kids believed that he was a captain last year, which I did too, but I was a little bit surprise because he hadn’t played before, but voted team captain. I shouldn’t have been because I understand how the team feels about him. He’ll be a captain again. He leads the football team, along with those guys in the secondary. I think they’re very valuable, too. … All of them are, actually, but those are the older guys that are leading us."

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