Arkansas football Coach Sam Pittman searching for clarity in spring battles.

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas football team will get back after it today for the practice that will carry the team over the halfway point of spring drills.

Spring practice No. 8, the first since March 23 due to spring break, will be the only prelude before the second major scrimmage of spring Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Second-year Coach Sam Pittman, appearing on the SEC Network’s “Paul Finebaum Show” on Wednesday, talked about some of the Razorbacks’ goals for the remainder of the 15 practices.

“You know, we have to find a quarterback,” Pittman said. “We believe in KJ Jefferson. Malik Hornsby has been there. We’ve got to find a quarterback. We’ve got to find some D-linemen. We think we have them there in younger [players].”

Jefferson and the offense will look for improvement after dropping the third-down situational work in the first scrimmage March 20, and again during the final workout prior to spring break.

Defensive back Greg Brooks Jr., speaking to reporters prior to Jefferson’s first media appearance March 23, said the defense dominated third downs on that day.

“Overall, I think we had a good day,” Brooks said. “KJ will tell you we had a good day himself when he comes up here. We were 7 of 8 on third down. The whole defense had a great day.”

Jefferson said corrections from missed assignments were the biggest focus of spring practice No. 7.

“The linemen up front, just correcting on who they’re pushing protection to,” Jefferson said. “Knowing who the free runner is, [for] the running back, as far as the upfront standpoint.

“For the skill positions, mainly knowing what routes and seeing open windows and finding open windows. For the quarterbacks, mainly recognizing the defense and knowing what coverage they’re in and getting the ball out of our hands as well.”

Pittman described what he’d like to see from the quarterback spot during his appearance on the SEC Network.

“Right now we’re looking for a guy just to run the offense, to be able to have the right reads, understand where the reads are, understand the secondary pre-snap,” Pittman said. “Things of that nature. We’re looking for someone who builds confidence in our football team when he’s behind center. And then, in all honesty, I’m looking for a guy who can throw the ball and someone who can catch it.

“A lot of guys look good on air. A lot of guys look good in one-on-one, nonteam settings. We’re trying to find a guy that can go play well in a team setting.”

Jefferson said he wouldn’t just be chilling out over spring break.

“Over the break, I’m focusing more on my mechanics and also preparation for going into different scrimmages or preparing myself overall,” he said.

Pittman told Finebaum what he’d like to see for the remaining eight days of spring drills.

“We’ve got to make sure that we can punt and kick under pressure,” he said. “We like our linebacker group. We’ve got some battles going on in the secondary.

“We like our wideouts. We’ve got some battles going on there. And obviously everybody wants to stay healthy. We are going to move some people in different positions to see if it makes our team better. Those things we really weren’t able to do last year because we couldn’t practice.

“We need to come out of spring knowing this is our guy at this spot, and we have eight more opportunities to find that out.”