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Not just a home run, but a grand slam hire by Hogs

Arkansas hires a solid recruiter, great offensive mind and great coach in Chad Morris. As everyone has told us, he’s a winner everywhere he’s been.

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After three weeks of agony for Razorback fans, there’s finally a new coach in place.

Chad Morris is the pick and if Bret Bielema was supposed to a home run hire back in December 2012, this one is a grand slam.

Back in 2012, those saying Bielema was a great hire weren’t looking very close. It was a bad fit from an experience and a scheme standpoint. Not that he was a bad coach — in the Midwest and Big 10 — but seriously out of place in the SEC.

Morris was considered one of the top candidates for every job that came around after about 2012. At that time, though, he hadn’t been a head coach at the college level and if Jeff Long hadn’t got a love letter from Bielema he might very well have been in the mix then the way things were going.

Instead he went to SMU and took over a program that was 1-11. Rebuilding that is no easy task. SMU has higher entrance requirements than Vanderbilt and they do not cut a break to get good athletes in school.

He got them to 7-5 by the third year and early predictions of people that follow the American Athletic Conference put the Mustangs as a nine or 10-win team next year.

Yeah, he was 14-22 over three years at SMU and many of The Great Unwashed will throw that around as justification that this is not a good hire.

The coach he compares most to in Razorback history is Ken Hatfield, who became the winningest coach ever at Arkansas. He did it with good athletes. Some were great, but there were a lot of good ones.

In Hatfield’s first three years at Air Force, he was 14-21-1. His fourth year was 10-2 before coming back to Fayetteville.

By all accounts from those who know him well, Morris is a great recruiter and, more importantly, he’s a winner.

In his career he has shown a willingness to completely change his approach if it means winning. When he took over at Stephenville a couple of years after Art Briles left, he was a Power-I coach.

That wasn’t working, so he got interested watching Darren McFadden in the Wildcat, spent a lot of time with Gus Malzahn and came up with a spread offense that evolved into what is called the “smashmouth spread.”

It’s similar in many respects to what Malzahn’s offense is and includes a passing game that will evoke memories of some things Bobby Petrino did at Arkansas from 2008-11.

The guess here is he will win.

We’ve been told he has a defensive coordinator lined up that’s going to be a familiar name and will be surprising.

And, no, I have no idea who that might be. I could spitball some names but honestly there’s nothing known about any of them.

From everyone I’ve talked to in several states, this is a coach that is universally respected by high school coaches and others across the spectrum. Not one negative comment, which is highly unusual.

That’s one nice change we haven’t seen around here in about a decade. Let’s face it, both Petrino and Bielema had issues with some high school coaches, particularly in Texas where the Hogs’ recruiting has tailed off badly over the last decade or so.

Chad Morris is, simply, a winner.

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2024 Razorbacks Football

Thu, Aug 29vs UAPB (Little Rock)W, 70-0
Sat, Sep 7@ Oklahoma StateL, 31-39 2OT
Sat, Sep 14vs UABW, 37-27
Sat, Sep 21@ AuburnW, 24-14
Sat, Sep 28vs Texas A&M (Arl)L, 21-17
Sat, Oct 5vs TennesseeW, 19-14
Sat, Oct 19vs LSUL, 34-10
Sat, Oct 26@ Mississippi StateW, 58-25
Sat, Nov 2vs Ole MissL, 63-31
Sat, Nov 16vs TexasL, 20-10
Sat, Nov 23vs Louisiana Tech3:00 PM
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Sat, Nov 30@ Missouri2:30 PM
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2024 High School Rankings

Following is the Arkansas Sports Media High School Football Poll including the Overall Top 10, the top five in Classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A, plus the top three in the 8-man division, as voted by a panel of sports media from around the state for the week ending August 24. Ranking is given with first-place votes received, records, total points and ranking from last week's poll:
OVERALLRecordPtsPrv
1.Bryant (25)10-02681
2.Greenwood (2)10-02343
30Conway9-12022
4.Little Rock Parkview9-11714
5.Bentonville7-31625
6.Benton9-11486
7.Fayetteville8-21117
8.Pulaski Academy8-2898
9.Rogers7-3439
10.Joe T. Robinson9-122
Others receiving votes: Valley View 8, Mountain Home 7, Cabot 6, Little Rock Catholic 6, Shiloh Christian 6, Elkins 1, Farmington 1.
CLASS 7A
1.Bryant (27)10-01351
2.Conway9-11022
3.Bentonville7-3813
4.Fayetteville8-2454
5.Pulaski Academy8-2395
Others receiving votes: Rogers 3.
CLASS 6A
1.Greenwood (27)10-01351
2.Benton9-11082
3.Mountain Home8-2623
4.Shiloh Christian7-3494
5.Little Rock Catholic9-1345
Others receiving votes: Marion 6.
CLASS 5A
1.Little Rock Parkview (27)9-11351
2.Joe T. Robinson9-11062
3.Valley View10-0793
4.Farmington9-1484
5.Hot Springs Lakeside8-2205
Others receiving votes: Camden Fairview 7, Harding Academy 7, Morrilton 3.
CLASS 4A
1.Elkins (20)10-01261
3.Arkadelphia (5)8-2913
2.Little Rock Mills (1)10-0682
4.Warren8-2554
5.Dardanell (1)9-123
Southside Batesville10-023
Others receiving votes: Malvern 12, Gravette 5, Highland 2.
CLASS 3A
1.Bismarck (12)10-01051t
2.Fordyce (10)10-0961t
3.Prescott (1)9-1704
4.Osceola (2)8-1543
5.Booneville (1)9-1395
Others receiving votes: Mansfield (1) 23, Rivercrest 10, Rison 4, Salem 4.
CLASS 2A
1.Carlisle (20)10-01271
2.Conway Christian (7)10-01152
3.Des Arc8-2595
4.East Poinsett Co.7-352
5.Bigelow6-4183
Murfreesboro7-3184
Others receiving votes: Mount Ida 6, Junction City 4, Cross County 3, Poyen 3.
8-MAN SANCTIONED
1.Strong-Huttig (27)5-0811
2.Midland9-0532
3.Cedar Ridge8-1253
Others receiving votes: Woodlawn 3.

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ESPN ARKANSAS 99.5 IN FAYETTEVILLE, 95.3 IN THE RIVER VALLEY, 96.3 IN HOT SPRINGS, 104.3 IN HARRISON-MOUNTAIN HOME.