In hindsight, we probably should have seen this coming with Hogs

Hindsght is always much more accurate than trying to look a couple of years down the road.

It’s easy to say now you saw the Chad Morris Trainwreck coming. Some of you did. Most of you were fully on board and I’ll admit I was on that wagon, too.

Looking back now, though, we probably should have been a little more cynical, but there were people who know more than any of us saying Morris was a home-run hire. He’d been one of the “can’t miss” coaching prospects since about 2012.

Let’s face it, the Bret Bielema era went downhill so fast folks were ready for any kind of positives. Athletics director Jeff Long set the program on a downward trajectory, then inexperienced incompetence took over.

After a brief Gus Malzahn flirtation (which was never going to happen), the folks doing the hiring took his recommendation of Morris, threw in a couple of popular opinions from others and basically hired him before athletics director Hunter Yurachek.

Don’t throw out there that Yurachek was on board with the hiring. Whether he was or not we may never know, but what did you expect him to say at that point?

Nobody knew Morris was going to be in water so far over his head he wasn’t going to make two full seasons. So over his head he couldn’t win an SEC game in 14 attempts.

He had offensive assistants in more over their heads than Morris and he reportedly didn’t listen to folks around who did know.

Houston Nutt could have coached the 2018 team to a 6-6 record and would have had them sitting on top of seven or eight wins right now, in my opinion. No, that doesn’t mean I’m jumping on the bandwagon to hire him back. Repeats seldom turn out well for anybody.

In hindsight, Morris may have lost the team in a second-half collapse against Colorado State in just his second game. That’s when the whispers started from some of the veterans.

Against North Texas they collapsed completely, getting blown out at home by a team they should have been able to beat in the worst of times.

While Morris may have been able to motivate high school players to perform at a high level, he often appeared quite incapable of motivating a frog to jump into a pond.

One person from Dallas told me before Morris’ first game that him making Joe Craddock the offensive coordinator was going to get them all fired. Again, that was before the first game and I dismissed it as sour grapes.

After the first game this same person told me, “I don’t know what that offense is, but that’s not what he was running at SMU.”

Did Morris not have the experience to step in a do what he does best? One of his friends, a high school coach, said he advised Morris to “do it your way and with your people.”

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Based on what people who saw Morris at SMU, that wasn’t the case at Arkansas. According to some sources, the playcalling during games often resembled recess at playschool and Morris kept over-ruling Craddock on the quarterback situation.

It was clear almost from the outset that Morris had no idea how to deal with the SEC stage. He came off as confused in press gatherings and either wasn’t coached or wouldn’t be coached on how to sound like he had a clue with the media.

Or how to make in-game adjustments (I don’t even want to begin counting the number of second-half collapses).

Or how to communicate with his players, often sending mixed signals, which some interpreted as outright lies.

Morris started out confused, made excuses to buy time and in the end the evidence on the field looked like his team quit on him.

How much progress Barry Lunney, Jr., can make with two games, including starting on the road at night against LSU, remains to be seen.

But there are some players on thsi roster, particularly at the skill positions.

The guess here they need a leader.

And we know now that wasn’t Morris.