Chad Morris continued his theme of getting better every day on his appearance on the SEC Teleconference on Wednesday morning.
“it’s a great starting point,” he said talking about fall camp.
That’s the theme we’ve heard since the start of spring practice and I think a lot of fans haven’t really understood what he’s talking about.
“I know we have a long way to go,” Morris said. “We’ve had a successful camp and we also understand that this team is nowhere near what it’s going to look like next week or even the week after that.”
Fans with the doom-and-gloom point to comments like that as this team isn’t close to being able to make a bowl. There’s probably some of the dunderheads in the national media that take it that way, too.
No, that’s not what Morris means.
He’s talking about playing to a championship-type level. That’s what I get from it talking to players and coaches that are around the team every single day.
Right now, this team is better than last year’s team. Take offensive tackle Brian Wallace, who has been the talk of camp for the changes he made in his body.
“He’s extremely athletic,” Morris said.
You didn’t hear anybody describing Wallace like that previously. Last year he was mainly mentioned as an under-achieving four-star.
Not now.
“With him cutting weight and getting down to that 300-mark, you can definitely see it,” Morris said. “You can watch him move. Just his overall…the way he carries himself, his overall confidence level.”
It’s taken awhile, but Wallace is now starting to play like a four-star.
“He’s been consistent all camp long at right tackle,” Morris said and that’s what you want to hear coaches say about any offensive player, but especially linemen.
Maybe more than any other player, Wallace has benefitted from the change in coaches.
“This has been a great opportunity for him,” Morris said. “He sees it, he feels it and I’m excited about watching this young man this season.”
Others have made strides, too, but Morris and the offensive coaches are fairly cautious about throwing too much out there. You get the idea they like everyone thinking they aren’t very good right now.
But Wallace’s talent has started to show.
“The sky is the limit for him,” Morris said.
He’s hoping it’s that way for everybody, including the fans.
“You can definitely tell that this is a hungry fanbase,” Morris said opening his segment on the teleconference. “A fanbase that’s as excited about starting the season as we are, as our team is. I think it’s going to give us a great starting point to where this team is.”
OFFENSE, DEFENSE CHALLENGE EACH OTHER
During Bobby Petrino’s final years, the defense never seemed to match the offense’s firepower and was pointed to as keeping the Razorbacks out of national title contention.
The culprit, many thought, was the defense being held back in practice against the offense.
Not so now.
The defense has been blitzing and giving the offense a wide variety of looks. It helps both, according to everybody I’ve talked to, and Morris agreed Wednesday.
“It really is beneficial,” he said. “And likewise, you can say that from an offensive standpoint too, practicing against a defense like what we run.”
Under the previous staffs, offenses that ran with a lot of tempo gave the defense fits at times. Last year, the Hogs faced eight opponents that primarily ran a spread offense with a lot of tempo at times … and averaged giving up over 40 points a game.
“Just from a tempo-standpoint with these guys having to understand to get the calls in and get them in quickly, get the communication done,” Morris said Wednesday on how it’s helped the defense. “I think it has done nothing but benefitted us since, you know, going all the way back to spring.”
GAME CAPTAINS
Seniors Dre Greenlaw, De’Jon Harris, Santos Ramirez, Hjalte Froholdt and Jared Cornelius will all be captains for Saturday’s opener against Eastern Illinois.
That will change from week to week.
“They’ll rotate each week, but this first week we have five and the next week we’ll scale back to four,” Morris said Wednesday morning. “We’ll try to use our seniors along the way and then elect permanent captains along the way.”
