Chad Morris has a problem … with Arkansas football fans if not folks higher up in the pecking order.
If he thought starting his time with a 4-15 overall record and not winning a single game in SEC play would not cause problems, he’s not following his own statements he’s repeated every time he’s changed quarterbacks.
“It’s not a lifetime appointment,” he’s said in what has becoming a revolving door behind center halfway through his second season.
As usual in these situations, everybody has talked to somebody and there’s one wild story after another coming out of the Smith Center. Take that with a double dose of salt.
The Hogs certainly have issues, but there’s no guarantee Morris is gone.
But you have to wonder if it’s as much economics as anything else. Let’s face it, Frank Broyles probably would have already fired him. Frank threatened to fire just about everybody after every loss and Jim Lindsey or other boosters would talk him off the ledge.
If athletics director Hunter Yurachek has that immediate reaction it’s probably Jon Fagg who talks him off the ledge.
The guess here is Morris might be in a better position to keep his job than most people think, although at some point the financial aspect of it has to take into account the retention bonus he gets paid on January 1 every year plus lost ticket revenue.
Right now, though, is Arkansas ready to pay millions to two coaches to NOT coach here?
Let’s face it, attendance percentage at a funeral similar to what Arkansas is putting in the stands at football games these days would be considered downright sad.
For a team in the SEC, where it just means more, it’s a fast track to oblivion.
Can Morris have a coaching staff shakeup that would buy him at least another year?
Most fans tend to agree that is a minimum requirement, mostly centered around offensive coordinator Joe Craddock.
Now this is not personal because I like Craddock, but it has looked like he started off confused and that was the high-water mark. Sorry, but going through five starting quarterbacks in 15 games and you still have major technical flaws comes back to the coach.
Especially when the one freshman that started won one of those four games. Connor Noland was the starter against Tulsa last year.
Does Craddock have the experience to handle adversity? Anybody can keep the train on the tracks when everything is working correctly, but the key is how they handle problems.
The Hogs’ offense hasn’t made improvements.
Now, granted, the offensive line has struggled. After Sam Pittman built a nationally-recognized line for Bret Bielema, it has gone steadily downhill since he left for Georgia after the 2015 season.
Bringing in the equivalent of an NFL graduate assistant combined with Bielema’s lack of attention to recruiting the position caused degraded things across the entire line.
There’s no fair way to judge offensive line coach Dustin Fry because most of his time has been spent juggling players that are either newcomers in years or playing on the line.
In football there may not be a position group that requires more experience and time spent together than in the offensive line. The SEC literally requires you be at least average there to have any success at all.
Something’s got to give, but that’s not going to be this week unless the Alabama team bus gets hijacked on the way to the stadium.
After the worst start in program history, Morris going to have to make changes and there better not be a bunch of youngsters brought into key coaching roles, either.
Of course, that’s assuming the change doesn’t start at the top, which is still a real possibility.
But the odds of a change there might be a little different than anyone thinks.
