HawgBeat – Arkansas announces 6 team captains for 2023 season

Head coach Sam Pittman and the Arkansas football team revealed their six team captains for the 2023 season Friday evening.

KJ Jefferson, Brady Latham, Rocket Sanders, Landon Jackson, Trajan Jeffcoat and Cam Little will have the ‘C’ on their jerseys this year. Jefferson was a captain last season as well.

The number of captains is up from the four that Arkansas announced last season. Alongside Jefferson was center Ricky Stromberg, linebacker Bumper Pool and safety Jalen Catalon. After suffering a season-ending injury in Week 1 against Cincinnati, Catalon was replaced by fellow safety Simeon Blair as a captain.

As a redshirt senior, Jefferson returns for his third season as Arkansas’ starting quarterback. He started 11-of-13 games, as he had to miss two due to injury. Jefferson completed 68.0% of his throws for 2,636 yards and 24 touchdowns, while rushing for 640 yards and nine touchdowns on 158 attempts.

As a sophomore last season, Sanders made his name well-known on the national stage after he carried the ball 222 times for 1,443 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. Sanders also caught 28 passes for 271 receiving yards and two scores through the air in his second season as a Hog.

During the 2022 season, Latham started all 13 games at left guard. He committed only two penalties and allowed just two sacks all season. He blocked for an offense that gained 6,128 total yards (second-most in program history) and rushed for 3,077 yards (10th-most in program history).

After an offseason of major weight gain, Jackson is looking like a bonafide SEC-caliber defensive end as a 6-foot-7, 281-pound junior. Last season, he played in all 13 games and totaled 23 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and one forced fumble.

As a redshirt senior season at Missouri in 2022, Jeffcoat started 10 games and recorded 21 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and one sack. As a redshirt junior in 2021, he racked up 34 total tackles, 10 TFLs and 3.5 sacks across 13 starts. He also added a forced fumble in the season opener against Central Michigan and recovered a fumble against South Carolina on Nov. 13, 2021.

During the 2022 season, Little made all 50 of his extra point attempts and he was 13-16 (81.3%) on field goals. The 50 extra points rank sixth in a single season in school history. His 89 points scored in a single season is ranked 10th in school history.

The Hogs will start their season Saturday, Sept. 2 at 3:00 p.m. CT against Western Carolina at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.