You could excuse Ty Storey for looking at Chad Morris’ putting him at the No. 1 quarterback spot this week as the old good news, bad news situation.
The good news, Ty, is you’re starting. The bad news is you face Auburn first.
Which is how this Arkansas team enters the Southeastern Conference part of it’s schedule this week down on The Plains against a defense that might be considered the best in the league if there wasn’t that pesky Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide a few hours up the road.
“We plan to give him the entire game,” Morris said Monday about naming Storey the No. 1 quarterback.
This week will likely see a simplified offensive game plan. To the average fan it will look pretty much the same, but the guess is there’s going to be more decisions made before the ball is snapped than after, which is what the Razorbacks have been trying to do.
Right now Hog fans feel like they’re starting a 1-11 season in the face, maybe 2-10 because Tulsa is on the schedule.
Of course every Monday morning quarterback in the state has the solution to the problem, most of which can’t be done because they’re basing it on the way things were done 40 years ago.
Coaches can’t do that these days because of different rules restricting what coaches can do with the players and, quite simply, a different attitude with youngsters.
The depth chart once again showed Storey or Cole Kelley as the No. 1 quarterback, but you have to wonder how many more chances Kelley is going to get. He’s not the answer in Morris’ offense, no matter what you think of the big guy.
We really don’t know what we don’t know about Storey. Some close to the program felt he never got a fair chance with the previous coaching staff. That’s not relevant now, but he still doesn’t have near the number of game reps that Kelley has.
You got the idea Monday that Morris is very much aware of the feeling many fans have. Let’s be clear … I don’t think he expected these problems, either.
The way the rules are now the only way coaches can really find out what they have with a team is when there’s a game. With serious scholarship limitations and coaches, in effect, having just 17 hours a week with a team and a mandated day off (which is Monday for the Hogs).
Yes, it’s 17 hours a week because the game counts as an additional three hours and the weekly limit from the NCAA is 20 hours a week.
“I do know offensive football,” Morris said at one point Monday. “I know what it takes.”
He’s in a worse situation than Bret Bielema was in 2013 when Steve Spurrier told him he was just going to have to recruit his way out of his problem after drilling the Hogs on homecoming, 51-7.
Morris came in after basically seven years or mediocre recruiting and two years of poor coaching on the offensive line combined with a basic failure to retain or develop players at that position.
He’s going to do what coaches have done for decades — make things simpler, reduce thinking and focus on getting better every day.
I’ve heard it from coaches forever.
Jimmy Johnson had to fire his first offensive coordinator in Dallas, bring in Norv Turner who drastically simplified things and the results were back-to-back Super Bowl titles.
It took a year, but few people remember his first season there when the Cowboys looked as bad as any team in NFL history, including the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. John McKay was asked once about the execution of his team and he replied, “I’m all in favor of it.”
LSU simplified things after a one-and-done year with Matt Canada as offensive coordinators. They have started the season beating two Top 10 teams in three weeks, including Auburn last week which likely will have them focused for the Hogs this week.
Cutting back is not giving up, which is how one fan described it to me this week.
“Maybe we only run 10 percent of our offense,” Morris said this week. “I want us to be effective with 10 percent.”
He knows the urgency. He also knows the schedule, although no coach will ever admit looking beyond that week’s opponent.
In reality, Morris has three games in Auburn, Texas A&M and Alabama where he better keep things simple or it could get beyond ugly in a hurry … and it might anyway.
And it all starts with the quarterback, the position where the No. 2 guy has a group wanting him put in every time a drive doesn’t end in a touchdown and it’s been a revolving door through three games.
“We’ve been talking about who the quarterback is since April,” Morris said. “We want to settle on a quarterback. Believe me when I say that. It’s been inconsistent.”
It’s Storey time for the Hogs this week.
After that will depend on what happens this week.
