Keeping some assistants may be key to recruiting, keeping talented freshmen

In a train wreck of a season, there are some folks who want a complete housecleaning of the Arkansas football staff, but keeping a few key assistants might be a big deal in recruiting.

That includes recruiting the multitude of young players on the current roster.

Immediately jumping to mind are wide receivers coach Justin Stepp, running backs coach Jeff Traylor and interim coach Barry Lunney, Jr.

Interestingly enough, those are the skill positions for the Razorbacks with a bulk of the talented playmakers that are going to be key factors for whoever gets the job.

All three of those coaches have the respect of their position players. Ask any of the wide receivers and most have a special relationship with Stepp, who became almost a family member during their recruiting process and has stayed that way.

The same goes for Traylor, who has immensely deep ties into Texas high schools, especially in the talent-rich East Texas area. That has been a target for college programs for decades and he knows every program in that area.

Lunney, quite simply appears to have the respect of the players all over the field, has coached premiere tight ends and is connected to every high school program in Arkansas.

I dont care who Hunter Yurachek hires, but you’d think those three guys will be critical to salvaging anything out of this year’s recruiting class, but more importantly, recruiting 17 redshirted freshmen, plus a host of sophomores and freshmen that have played, to stay during a transition.

On Monday, Lunney addressed the LSU game in rather interesting fashion. From what he didn’t say, though, you get the idea a lot of the problems on this team were primarily at the top.

He’s doing it mainly by taking the pressure off the players and it was clear it had built up every week to the point it finally blew last week and Chad Morris was cut loose.

Morris didn’t have the respect of his players for probably more than one or two reasons, not the least of which he couldn’t motivate a frog to jump into the pond. We’ve also heard he was the one responsible for all the decision-making at the quarterback spot, which was whispered about for a couple of years.

No Lunney just keeps telling the players to play their best game of the year this week and he’s not talking about the scoreboard.

In what most view as a no-win situation, offensive coordinator Joe Craddock and defensive coordinator John Chavis are going to basically get a shot to do their thing without getting over-ruled a lot by the head coach.

“I’m going to see the game through a different lens,” Lunney said Monday. “Joe Craddock and John Chavis have been working relentlessly on the gameplan. You should use the open date to get a headstart on the next opponent. It’s not a one-man show.”

Lunney isn’t going to throw Morris — or anybody else — under the bus. He’s too professional.

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But paying attention to what he said makes you think this is a situation where simply getting players to just play is the goal now, not some scheme. The off week was spent working inside and dealing with a change at the top.

“Our goal going into last week was to get re-charged,” Lunney said. “We talked about being fresh physically, emotionally and psychologically and I feel we accomplished that. I think it was clear that happened last night when we got back together.”

With some coaching changes, if the guy coming in thinks it’s a problem with his fellow coaches, changes happen immediately. LSU coach Ed Orgeron did that when he was promoted to interim in 2016 when he cut offensive coordinator Cam Camron immediately.

Lunney didn’t change any assistants, except to promote special teams consultant Danel De Prato to an assistant coach status.

For the Hogs’ new coach to have any chance of success immediately, he can’t lose many players. We wondered at the time if Morris was just helping the next coach with 17 potential freshmen out of a heralded class that he managed to keep a redshirt on.

Indeed, that turned out to be the case.

Now if the new coach wants to have any shot at signing very many players a couple of weeks after taking the job, he’s got to keep at least three on the current staff.

Which is why Stepp, Traylor and Lunney could be around a little longer.