Chad Morris was first to the podium for Monday’s final post-mortem on the loss to Colorado State on Saturday night and he basically dodged the whole quarterback issue.
Offensive coordinator Joe Craddock came later and basically followed the script.
Both certainly left the impression it’s a two-man position between Ty Storey and Cole Kelley.
Arkansas fans can be excused for wanting to pull their hair out over this. That’s not really what anybody wanted to hear.
“I don’t know if the quarterback situation is a concern as much as the fact that you need someone to lead the team,” Morris said. “It’s not ideal to have to play two guys. It’ll be a week-to-week process right now.”
Then there’s two freshmen sitting on the bench that you get the impression Morris and Craddock are somehow reluctant to put them into the game. Whether that’s because Storey and Kelley have more game experience or the freshmen aren’t practicing well isn’t really clear.
Some players have told folks Connor Noland is the best quarterback running the offense. Apparently, the coaches don’t agree with that assessment.
“The other quarterbacks still get reps in practice so they gotta be ready when the opportunity presents itself, but Cole and Ty will continue to battle this week,” Morris said.
Just looking at the passing numbers last week was bad enough. Storey was 5-of-13 for 36 yards with two interceptions (both not totally his fault, we found out Monday) while Kelley wasn’t much better, hitting 6-of-9 passes for 102 yards.
Then look a little closer. Kelley gets passing credit for a little pop pass to T.J. Hammonds, who took what is effectively a handoff 64 yards. Subtract that and Kelley has just 38 yards.
Yes, for those trying to do the math, an SEC team only had a realistic 68 yards passing against a non-Power 5 opponent who came into the game with two losses.
“This is a work in progress,” Morris said.
Well, Chad, the fans have figured that out. What no one can figure out is why you have a pair of freshmen who haven’t seen the field and nobody appears to be happy about either of the two guys playing quarterback.
Is Morris not confident enough of an SEC win he’s trying to win the nonconference games just to get some wins on the board?
In the opener against Eastern Illinois, Kelley started and didn’t make it to the second quarter. Last week, Storey started and basically did a remarkable imitation of a man lost trying to play quarterback for a half.
“It’s not on the wide receivers or the quarterbacks, it’s on all of us,” Morris said. “We had some drops the other night, we have to make plays, we’ll fix it.”
Since this is Morris’ first season and only the second game, we’ll ignore the “fix it” comment that’s starting to sound a lot like Bret Bielema’s “we’re close.”
“I don’t know what’s happened in the past, but this is on my watch,” Morris said. “I assure you that we’ll get that fixed.”
For the first time since, oh, probably 2008 that the Razorbacks haven’t been settled on the quarterback position, right or wrong. Yes, there were folks questioning both Brandon and Austin Allen starting at times, but the coaching staff never wavered.
Morris wanted to run the ball against Colorado State and that’s what the Hogs did. You get the idea at times he’s more dedicated to running the ball than the previous staff was.
But maybe that’s because they don’t have a quarterback they really like.
Which begs the question of what they are waiting for in looking at the two freshmen.
Let’s face it, this team hasn’t looked exactly hammer-down, full-tilt boogie or any of the other little catchwords Morris has used.
Is Morris sacrificing some of the near future development at quarterback in trying to produce wins in the immediate future?
Thats the question some folks are having right now.
Including me.
