After five years of listening to a coach talking about what he had done it’s a nice little change of pace to hear Chad Morris talk about what he wants to accomplish.
Let’s face it, the previous coach waddled into town with a resume that was built by basically riding on the wagons built and driven by other people. He never coached outside the Hayden Fry coaching tree (which means, basically, he only knew one way).
Morris basically nearly sprinted to. the podium for his first press conference and you don’t see him taking a casual stroll very often.
“This is a sleeping giant,” he said again this past Monday about whether he basically had second thoughts. “It can be done or I promise you I wouldn’t be here. I can promise you that.”
He expected some growing pains. Maybe not 2-10 last year, but just about everyone knew it was going to be tough.
“There’s times you throw cold water on somebody to wake the giant up,” he said. “You may have to throw a couple of glasses on ’em.
“This is not an overnight fix. I’ve said that since I got here.”
It took basically 10 years to drive it into the ground. Those 10-11 win seasons weren’t going to continue because Bobby Petrino was more interested in drawing up plays than getting players to run them. He proved that at Louisville.
It’s probably not a coincidence there was, for all intents and purposes, no adult supervision over the football program.
One coach ran to the sorority house parties (yes, that actually happened) and one basically had a man cave on Dickson Street while an interim provided comic relief for a few months.
Morris has done more with two recruiting classes off two of the worst seasons in program history than those other guys did over a combined 10 years.
The effort is apparent and it really wasn’t realistic to expect it to get fixed quick.
“Especially when you look at a snapshot of Razorback football over the last 10-12 years,” he said. “We’re building something special. I’ve talked about building a program and I’m committed to doing that.
“Our culture is established and it will continue to be defined every day.”
You can get out of Morris comparisons with things he’s done at his other stops, going back to his high school coaching days in Texas. The last few places he coached there were bigger than every college program in Arkansas until you go through the tunnel on Interstate 49 headed north.
When he was hired, Morris said he would walk backwards to Fayetteville for the job. There hadn’t been a coach express anything close to that since John Barnhill called Frank Broyles in Missouri in late 1957.
“Without a doubt, I would walk backwards again to Fayetteville,” he said. “This is going to be a special place.”
When he was hired in December 2017, he asked the fans to give him a chance and said he wouldn’t let them down.
For many, they were willing to do that last year. Expecting that same level of patience this year is probably too much to even begin to ask about.
The guess is Morris isn’t that patient, either and that’s another change.
The previous coach liked to talk about being close, but you never felt like deep inside his considerable gut he HAD to win.
Morris HAS to win.
Not for his job. You get the idea he simply can’t stand piling up losses.
He inherited a mess at SMU and had the program on the upswing. Morris wasn’t leaving Dallas for just anywhere because the Mustangs were on an upward path while the Hogs were wallowing around, not making much progress.
It was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up, mainly because he didn’t have to change anything that was already successful. He could do it his way.
Which, I’m guessing, is the only way he wants it.
And that should be a pleasant change to Hog fans.
