Morris gambling playing youngsters now pays off … but when?

Chad Morris probably decided before his first season it was going to be at least a two-year housecleaning before he could get things headed in the right direction.

It’s not a particularly far-fetched notion he knew he was going to have the time to do that when he took the job. Morris probably wasn’t interested in building up another program for somebody else.

Sonny Dykes has SMU in the Top 25 right now, in case you haven’t noticed. Primarily with this staff’s work in laying a foundation he’s making work after needing a year to figure it out.

Whether you want to admit it or not, Morris inherited a situation worse in the SEC than what he walked into with the Mustangs in the All-American Conference.

Fans expecting a repeat of the 1977 results Lou Holtz posted were not realistic. You would be hard-pressed to find more talent on a Razorbacks’ roster from top to bottom … ever. Frank Broyles set him up for success.

But no first-year coach in Hogs’ history inherited the mess Morris walked into. He literally was going to have to build a program from the ground up and probably has been given the freedom to do it.

Football wasn’t the only mess around the Razorbacks’ athletic department in December 2017. You can thank Jeff Long for a decade-plus of dismantling an SEC program.

It’s apparent Morris decided to clean things out, then rebuild virtually from scratch.

Against Texas A&M last Saturday, the Hogs started just a total of eight players on both sides of the ball with more than two years’ experience in Fayetteville at their position. Austin Capps started at left guard, but last year was his first year on offense.

Don’t tell me about what others did somewhere else. They haven’t been in this system longer than two years. Even if you add Nick Starkel and Rakeem Boyd to the mix and, well, it brings the total to 10.

While it’s been proven you can win with a couple of freshmen starting for you, that only counts if you surround them with experienced players.

When this was pointed out to a veteran coach that spent part of that time in the SEC, his response was interesting: “Chad knows he’s got time to do it that way or he wouldn’t be doing it.”

While that’s going to rub some folks the wrong way, it is what it is.

Regardless how talented they are, freshmen face a pretty steep learning curve in the SEC. I could write a book on high draft picks that often got pushed all over the field as freshmen or made boneheaded mental mistakes.

In 2008, Nick Saban started a couple of youngsters at linebacker and in an early-season game they ran into each other on a play.

Advertisement

For coaches, it’s maddening. Morris mentioned in a press conference it will make you pull your hair out.

Fans tend to put all of the blame on the coach. They either can’t get them motivated, prepared or ready to play.

You even have high school coaches getting interviewed about what Morris should be doing for preparation, which is almost beyond laughable that anyone would listen.

Go sit down and be quiet, son, until you’ve done it at the SEC level. You have no idea.

It’s clear the talent is on the Hogs’ roster for a solid foundation.

Now it’s just got to produce a few wins.