FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — About midway through spring practice, Arkansas coach Bret Bielema pulled out five old video clips of quarterback Brandon Allen throwing the football to show to in a meeting with the Razorbacks' offense. The clips were from 2013, Allen's sophomore season, his first as a full-time starter.

What showed on the screen wasn't pretty.

"He threw two passes about 10 yards out of bounds and he wasn't trying to," Bielema said.

Brandon Allen believes the Hogs are prepared for opponents who will dare them to pass. Denny Medley/USA TODAY Sports

Allen's recall of the plays: "Me throwing passes not even close to receivers. Throwing it out of bounds when I had players open. Anything you can think about going wrong, it went wrong."

After those five plays finished, Bielema then pulled up five clips from practices this spring. These displayed Allen threading the needle to receivers in the red zone and Allen displaying better accuracy, arm strength, timing; the current Brandon Allen showing vast improvement over the old Brandon Allen.

"Our players are like 'Holy cow,'" Bielema said. "It was a different person."

In fact, Allen jokingly protested that the original clip wasn't him.

"I told Coach B that wasn't me," Allen said. "I said 'That was somebody else dressed in my number. I don't know who that was.' It was a night-and-day difference. I was shocked when I watched the film at how bad I really was. Looking back at it now, it was ugly."

Allen and Bielema can laugh and joke about it now because the fifth-year senior quarterback took prodigious steps forward from 2013 to 2014, and the Hogs are hoping an even better Allen is in store in 2015.

If the rising Razorbacks are to climb out of the SEC West cellar and move their win total closer to double digits, an even more improved passing game, powered by Allen, is necessary.

"Any time you have a fifth-year quarterback who's a multi-year starter, it's unprecedented what can happen," Bielema said. "We're so much better around him. It's our best offensive line, two tight ends, a couple wide receivers that I think are exceptional and two great running backs. The sky's the limit."

Allen's journey to this point was bumpy and eventful. Recruited by former head coach Bobby Petrino, Allen is one of the Razorbacks seniors who has been through three head coaches. New Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos will be Allen's fourth offensive coordinator since he arrived. That state of constant change made things challenging and the local product from Fayetteville High endured his fair share of criticism.

Some of it was warranted, considering his 49 percent completion rate and 13-to-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio as a sophomore. Last season was different though. He improved significantly in both categories (56 percent, 20 touchdowns, five interceptions) and became more of a weapon in Arkansas' run-heavy offense, which features two 1,000-yard rushers (Alex Collins, Jonathan Williams).

With that kind of improvement, teammates and coaches felt Allen might be somewhat overlooked outside of Northwest Arkansas.

"I'm good friends with him so I see what people say on social media and things like that," junior tight end Hunter Henry said. "He's definitely underappreciated by a lot of people. But I think he's grown among the fans, among different people around the SEC. They've seen the production he made and progression he made and he's getting a lot better throughout time."

Only three SEC West teams return a quarterback who started full time in 2014: Mississippi State (Dak Prescott), LSU (Anthony Jennings) and Arkansas. With Enos bringing some new concepts to the receivers and the passing game as a whole, optimism for Allen's senior season is running high. Enos, the former Central Michigan head coach, gushes about Allen's ability.

"I think he's extremely intelligent," Enos said "I think he's a hard worker, has a great work ethic. I think he's tough, especially visiting with the coaches that have been with him for awhile. I think he's very confident in himself. I think his teammates are very confident in him. I think he has a really good arm and a live arm and a quick arm and he's really good in the pocket. He's been very impressive to me."

Enos was pleased with the performance Allen offered in spring football and evidence of Allen's progress came in the Red and White spring game on April 25. Allen completed 17-of-21 passes for 230 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Of his four incompletions, three connected with receivers (two were dropped and one catch was ruled out of bounds). So out of 21 passes, only one failed to hit its target on the hands.

And while it's worthy to note those statistics came against Arkansas' second-team defense, it is still a useful measuring stick. In the 2014 spring game – where Allen also faced the Hogs' second unit – he struggled, going 12-of-21 for 108 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

"His [confidence] has shot through the roof," left guard Sebastian Tretola said of Allen. "Going through his reads and being willing to put it in a tight spot...places he didn't used to throw that ball. That's definitely the biggest thing. Watching him trust himself, his confidence level is definitely up."

Allen capped 2014 by winning the MVP in Arkansas' Advocare V100 Texas Bowl win over Texas, throwing for 160 yards and two touchdowns. Still, he knows how opponents think: Stop Collins and Williams, make Allen win the game. He's content with that and hopes to show consistently this fall that the Razorback offense can win running and passing.

"I think a lot of people's game plan is to force us to pass," Allen said. "That's the mindset of a lot of coaches. Me and the receivers, we embrace that. If they want us to pass it, OK, we'll beat them passing. I thought our passing game was good last year. It wasn't great, it was good. It helped out in a lot of our games and I think it's only going to get better from here on out."