How does a college quarterback improve on a season in which he passed for 4,200 yards and 32 touchdowns and threw just three interceptions?
Tough as the 2014 encore performance might be for Baylor's Bryce Petty, his coach, Art Briles, is expecting even more.
"He has a vast amount of experience now, to help him improve in everything that he does. Leadership, decision-making, things that can give him an edge on the field," Briles told FOX Sports' The Audible with Bruce Feldman. "I expect him, as crazy as it sounds, to be even more productive, even better and to lead us to even greater heights than he did last year."
Statistically, of course, the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Heisman Trophy candidate will be hard-pressed to match his junior season. But the box score isn't where Briles will be looking for Petty's experience to make a difference. After winning the Big 12 title but failing to reach the BCS Championship Game due to a loss to Oklahoma State, the only room for the Bears to improve is by running the regular-season table and earning a seat in college football's first four-team playoff.
"As a team, we want to get into those playoffs," Petty said last month, per the Dallas Morning News. "That is the next step in this program to become a national powerhouse. We took the right steps last year. We had a splash on the scene."
Petty has spent some time this offseason in San Diego with private quarterback coach George Whitfield, who has tutored first-round picks Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Johnny Manziel. Whitfield believes NFL scouts will flock for Petty, who has the size and arm strength they desire.
Beginning this year, there won't be a better stage for impressing scouts than the College Football Playoff.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
