FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas has six captains for the 2023 football season with Sam Pittman explaining the process Monday on how they were selected.

The captains are quarterback KJ Jefferson, running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, offensive guard Brady Latham, kicker Cam Little and defensive ends Landon Jackson and Trajan Jeffcoat. Pittman provided more info on their selections.

“The team selected them,” Pittman said. “We don’t have any influence on them. We’re not in the locker room with them. We’re not with them every day outside of football. The weight room, how they work, the accountability… So, there was a few that was certainly high in votes, and then the rest of the guys were all about the same. So, we decided to go with six this year.

“I think we’ve gone maybe five one year, I think. But it was so close that I didn’t want to be the guy that made the decision on one vote here or there on whether you could become a captain or not. We decided to go with six. I thought it was really good. We have good leadership on our team. Basically because of the voting is why we decided, because of the closeness of the vote is why we decided to go with six.”

Jefferson has played in 32 games with 26 starts. He has completed 436 of 666 passes for 5,816 yards 48 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Jefferson also has rushed 362 times for 1,429 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Sanders has appeared in 26 games starting 13 of them. Sanders has rushed 336 times for 2,021 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also has grabbed 39 passes for 480 yards and three touchdowns.

Latham has played in 39 games with the Hogs and started 36 of them. He played in three games in 2019 and thus retained his redshirt season. He has since started each of the games in 2020-2022.

Jackson has played in 18 games, five at LSU in 2021, with seven starts, all at Arkansas in 2022. In 2022 at Arkansas, Jackson had 23 tackles, nine solo, 3.5 for loss, 3.0 sacks, 1.0 forced fumble, 2.0 quarterback hurries and 1.0 pass defended. He had no stats in his five games at LSU in 2021.

Little has played in 26 games at Arkansas in his two seasons. He has made 33-of-40 field goals with a long of 51. He has never missed a point after touchdown.

Jeffcoat is set to play his first game as a Razorback on Saturday. He transferred in from Missouri. In 48 games at Missouri he started 30 of them. He had 84 tackles, 62 solo, 19 for loss, 11.5 sacks, 2.0 forced fumbles, 1.0 recovered, 17 quarterback hurries and 1.0 pass defended. He was first-team All-SEC in 2020.

Arkansas and Western Carolina will kickoff at noon on Saturday in Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium. The game will be on SEC Network+ and ESPN+.