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No school in recent history - and perhaps in the history college football - has experienced a revolving door at quarterback quite like Arkansas the last two years.

The Razorbacks have used eight different starters since 2018, including five in the final five games of last season. With graduate transfer Feleipe Franks entering the mix with a new coaching staff this offseason, they’ll likely have quarterback No. 9 under center when the 2020 season gets underway.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has thrown a wrench into everything. The sports world was put on hold just days before Arkansas was set to begin spring practice under first-year head coach Sam Pittman.

That period was going to be critical for new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles to install his system and figure out the quarterback situation, which also includes one-game starters KJ Jefferson, John Stephen Jones and Jack Lindsey and will add touted 2020 signee Malik Hornsby.

Not only have the Razorbacks missed out on spring ball, but now they - and the rest of college football - are staring at the possibility of an abbreviated preseason, which makes it “incredibly difficult” to evaluate quarterbacks, Briles said during a 16-minute interview on the Red Zone with Josh Bertaccini.

“I think everybody is going through the same,” Briles said Friday morning. “I know it’s a lot tougher on first-year staffs, but we’re not going to use that as an excuse or a crutch. We’re dealt the cards we’re dealt with.

“You’ve got to find a way to be great either way because that’s why we’re here. … Once we get on the field - whenever that is, whether that’s June, July, August - we have to maximize our time and be great.”

SEC rules prohibit the quarterbacks from recording themselves throwing or working out and sending it to the coaches, but they are allowed four hours of virtual meetings per week.

Wide receiver Mike Woods told reporters via a teleconference last week that he felt the offense was taking advantage of those meetings and grasping the playbook. Briles agreed that installation was going as well as it could, but admitted it wasn’t the same as working through it on the field.

“The difficult part of it is not being able to be on the field with them,” Briles said. “You can install a bunch of stuff, but you really don’t know your team and you don’t know how guys play once they’re on the field. You can get into it, but it’s hard to do too much just because you don’t know exactly what you have.”

Briles’ success as an offensive coordinator at his previous stops is well-documented, so Arkansas fans are hopeful he gets the program out of the cellar.

The spring game previously scheduled for April 25 would have given them a sneak peak. Instead, they’ll have to settle for what Briles says he envisions for the unit.

“We want to be spread, we’re going to have wide splits, we’re going to tempo, we’re going to run the football and we’re going to throw shots downfield and that’s kind of the basis of what we want to do,” Briles said. “We want to be attacking, we don’t want to sit there and wait and hope things happen. We want to make them happen from an offensive standpoint.”

It’s worth noting, though, that Briles also stressed he wants the offense to be productive and that he’d adjust what he wants to do based on personnel and what they can and can’t do. But with no on-field practices, it’s hard to do that right now.

The issues the Razorbacks are working through are certainly unique compared to years past and Briles even said they’re nothing like anything he ever expected to encounter as a coach.

“It’s been an interesting spring, of course, being a first-year staff and having to work through some of the things we’re working through right now,” Briles said. “It’s definitely been challenging, but Coach Pittman has handled it extremely professionally and trying to get done everything we can.”