Chad Morris said it last week, but nobody really wanted to listen.
“We’ll be pretty vanilla,” he said in Thursday’s press conference about what to expect from Arkansas’ offense in the Red-White game in Little Rock on Saturday.
That’s exactly what was delivered.
For accuracy purposes, the offense beat the defense, 27-25. In one of these games, the score is almost meaningless considering the way they are scored tends to fluctuate.
No, those expecting to see offensive fireworks are going to have to wait until September 1 against Eastern Illinois. It wasn’t happening Saturday in front of an intimate (estimated) gathering of 7,000 hardy folks braving the miserable weather.
“I wish it was raining or snowing harder, that’s what it’s all about,” Morris said later.
There’s an old-school touch to Morris and he embraces it. You get the idea he wouldn’t complain about a good ol’ muddy field in bad conditions.
He held up the postgame press conference for a few minutes while he visited with some of the fans. As small as the crowd was he almost could have visited with every one of them personally.
“It was important for me to show my appreciation to our fans here today,” he said, apologizing the media for being a little tardy. “Your energy and passion was felt. Our team had a chance to spend some time out there with them.”
The weather was part of the story. Some of the fans were expecting all sorts of bells and whistles offensively, but that was never going to happen.
“We stayed healthy today,” Morris said. “When you can line them up at the end and they’re all still walking, you’ve had a successful day.”
No one got hurt, but there weren’t any obvious answers to questions about personnel, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Specifically quarterback.
“We asked our quarterbacks to be present,” Morris said. “You can’t be perfect. That means play one play at a time, be in the moment.”
You got the idea he felt Cole Kelley and Ty Storey were pressing a little.
“Guys want to do it all,” he said. “They want to make every check, every throw, and be perfect every play, but it just can’t happen. We tell our guys to play through the system, the system has answers.”
There were players that got your attention, though.
Defensive end Randy Ramsey has been talked about by coaches all spring after his move. He had three tackles in the game, including two sacks for 14 yards in losses.
“Randy Ramsey continued what he’s shown all spring long,” Morris said later. “He has a chance to be really special.”
He is one of the players with new life after the position change with the new coaching staff.
“I just am thankful that they believe in me and putting me in situations that I can play up to my abilities,” Ramsey said later. “They sat me down and told me what they wanted me to do, and I believed in them.”
At times Saturday he looked like playing out wide and coming after the quarterback is what he’s always been doing.
The same couldn’t be said for the quarterbacks.
Ty Storey started and alternated possessions with Cole Kelley. They both were about 50 percent on completions for the same yardage and each was sacked twice.
As Morris said, both did some good things. Both are still struggling at times.
Despite it all, though, Morris doesn’t appear too concerned with the way things are shaping up at quarterback.
It’s not a given the starting quarterback is on campus yet. Coaches aren’t afraid to play freshmen anymore and it doesn’t prevent you from having a championship-caliber team.
Morris wasn’t afraid to put freshman Deshaun Watson in at Clemson when he was a freshman. That’s not saying Connor Noland or John Stephen Jones are the second coming of Watson, but it does say don’t rule out the possibility.
In my opinion, both are better options than anybody on campus now. That’s based on what I’ve seen at practices in drills.
No, Saturday was about getting more film on players for the personnel decisions that will begin in earnest after Wednesday.
“Hammer Down is a culture,” Morris said. “it’s a lifestyle for us. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way.”
There will be some that won’t be expecting much. The typical knee-jerk reaction and evaluation process the yammering national experts use will have the Hogs fighting to become bowl eligible.
They will be better than that.
And the guess here is that long way Morris is talking about isn’t a .500 record being where he’s talking about going on that long trip.
It’s higher. Much, much higher than that.
