Chad can’t fix what’s wrong with Hogs in one year

It’s crystal clear now the situation Chad Morris inherited back in December was one that couldn’t be fixed quickly.

Or even in one season.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I was dead wrong about this team. Based on what limited availability we have with the team, I felt they had bought into what Morris and the new staff was selling.

Obviously, that one missed the mark by about a mile or two.

Morris inherited a program that has bounced all over the map for a decade now. Arkansas football hasn’t really found a sustaining identity that’s lasted more than a couple of years.

Bobby Petrino had a plan. It worked pretty well for a couple of years, but a lack of interest in recruiting had things headed in a downhill direction before he flew through the handlebars back on April Fool’s Day in 2012.

John L. Smith may have had a plan, but he was the only one who knew it … or cared. Nobody viewed him as more than comic relief in a year where expectations exceeded reality for fans, players, coaches and administrators.

Bret Bielema had a plan that was never going to do more than provide some wild ups and downs and as the level of talent dropped, so did the wins and confidence in his plan.

The only constant over this Decade of Despair was an athletic director who was kicked out the door before Bielema a year ago.

Now it falls on Morris’ shoulders to clean up a once-proud program that has gone 69-66 in 10 seasons plus this year.

Arkansas Razorback football likely will finish this year at 69-69 at the end of this season for an 11-year winning percentage of .500 … or, basically, an average of 6-6 every season.

That’s not what fans expect or want. It’s the reason home games appear to have about as many empty seats as people in the seats.

In many respects, what has happened to Razorback football has some similarities in the decline of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980’s.

Back then, Tom Landry had kept trying to win with a defense he designed in the 1950’s, an offense he sorta made up as he went along and drafting players in the first round nobody was really interested in until about the fifth round … at best.

Because he was maybe as smart as any coach that ever lived, he kept the program from bottoming out. Tex Schramm, who may have been as good as any marketing illustionist that ever lived, kept the public perception of an organization at the top of the game.

Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys and realized pretty quickly he had paid for an image that was losing money hand over fist.

Jimmy Johnson came in as coach and realized he had left better players at the University of Miami than what he inherited with the Dallas Cowboys.

The result was a 1-15 season that often resembled recess at playschool more than a professional football franchise. Shoot, they even traded the only superstar on the roster for some NFL cast-offs … and a bunch of draft picks.

Johnson basically did the professional equivalent of recruiting his way out of the situation he inherited. Three years later the Cowboys were in the playoffs, then won three of the next four Super Bowls.

All of that was in a seven-year period (including the two seasons Barry Switzer came in as coach after Jimmy and Jerry’s divorce after five years).

Morris has many of the same issues. At the NFL level if players don’t buy into a new coach’s system they get traded or retire if they know they’re at the end of the run.

College players can’t do it that easy.

But the constant is the coach has to bottom it out, then rebuild things from the ground up. It appears that what Morris is doing at Arkansas. Chip Kelly is doing the same thing at UCLA and Scott Frost at Nebraska.

None of those three inherited programs that were exactly stocked with title-contending talent. All three have seen players leave and the guess here is there will be plenty of players with eligibility left that leave all three programs after November.

It’s a process.

And it’s progress.

Fans can jump off the bandwagon if they wish. That’s their right. Boosters can stop writing the checks if they want. That’s certainly their right.

If they do, though, don’t expect your old seat in a couple of years when you want back on.