Morris has a plan that really isn’t based on what Hog fans think

Considering each team’s scoring output in the opening week of the season, fans of both Arkansas and Ole Miss are apparently expecting something resembling two mules fighting over a turnip.

That’s what you get when the Razorbacks hold off Portland State by 20-13 and the Rebels’ faceplant in Memphis, 15-10.

Which is why 100 on the over-under this week may be too low. That tends to happen in this series.

So many Hog fans are expecting the worst you get the idea they are almost hoping for it. You would think they lost last week.

But this is fan base has historically been more concerned with style points than wins and losses. That’s a trend that goes back to the 1960’s.

Frank Broyles caught so much grief in 1967 he told everybody the Hogs would be passing the ball more, going to a pro-style offense.

Despite the first play of 1968 being a bomb attempt to a fast-stepping Max Peacock that Bill Montgomery missed on, they actually ran the ball more in ’68 than they did in ’67.

“It was important for recruiting we told everybody we were a pro-style offense,” Broyles said a few years later. To most in those days, that meant you were going to be flinging it around the field.

But fans were happy. Even in a loss to Texas in 1968, fans griped more in a 16-2 win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. They missed too many offensive chances and Bill Burnett getting tackled in the end zone for a safety gave them something.

Even in the era of the Great Playcaller himself, the Hogs scored over 40 and lost by double digits (including a 22-point loss to Auburn and Cam Newton). Sometimes you get the idea fans would have been upset with a narrow win.

Also during that time frame, there were some nail-biting wins over folks like Troy, East Carolina (in overtime) and Western Kentucky.

Quit complaining about a win, regardless how ugly it was over any caliber team.

Sometimes the game plan is a little different from what some of the Lunatic Fringe geniuses think (or hope) it is.

The guess here is the Razorbacks’ offense is going to look a little different than it did against Portland State. There were at least three basic routes they practice in drills I’ve seen that were not run a single time in the opener.

Chad Morris really doesn’t care what you think about the margin of victory or how you judge the style because 99.345 percent of the people reading this have no clue what he was wanting to accomplish.

The Hogs’ offense will be fine. Even during last year’s disaster, they put up more yardage and points on Alabama until the Crimson Tide nosedived into the ground against Clemson. Morris knows offense, regardless what you want to think in a short-sighted, narrow, viewpoint.

Do not base a plan on what you see in the opening game of a season where a lot of coaches would have run quarterback sneaks all day if they come out of it with a win.

Ultimately, that’s what matters.

Morris has a game plan for an entire program, not just a game or a season. His plan is one that is based on a certain foundation and he’s likely going to have the time to see if he can put something together.

Oh, and that plan includes winning. Morris isn’t putting that plan up for a vote by the fans, either, and he’s not too concerned with how they’d vote anyway. He’s well aware of what does matter.

Morris was a math major and knows it’s all in the numbers with a W.