When Arkansas turned to Chad Morris back in December, nobody questioned his coaching abilities.
After all, he had coached a record-setting offense at Clemson and everyone from Dabo Swinney to Gus Malzahn praised his coaching abilities.
The skeptics from the Great Unwashed of the bipolar Razorback fan base wondered if he could recruit at the SEC level. They used his classes at SMU as an example, which was ridiculous.
In just over two weeks at Arkansas he put together a better recruiting class than the one he had in Dallas. As of now, the Hogs ended up with the No. 49 class in the 247Sports.com composite, which is startling, considering the number of scholarships available and the shape it was left in by the previous staff.
With Junior Day happening the past two weeks, Morris has been bringing in some big names. No, the Hogs won’t get them all because nobody ever does.
But they did get a commitment over the weekend from a defensive tackle from Memphis, who chose Arkansas over offers from Tennessee, Clemson, Georgia, Auburn, Louisville, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and others, according to published reports from the recruiting guys.
Morris is already getting the Hogs into the mix with the big boys.
It is a much more aggressive approach to recruiting than we saw under the previous coaching regime.
It’s just a different mindset.
Yes, they are getting some big-time players to Fayetteville for a visit. That doesn’t mean they’ll get them all to sign, but the guess is they’ll get some of them.
Especially with in-state players.
The feeling is players in Arkansas that have the opportunity to come but don’t, well, good luck, but you’re missing out on something that hasn’t been seen around here in awhile.
With the current sincere attempts at making Little Rock and everything below the River Valley be part of a Razorback Nation that, quite frankly, hasn’t really existed in their lifetimes.
Oh, there were some good years with Bobby Petrino and several with Houston Nutt, but there was never the overall excitement you saw in earlier years. You’d probably have to be over 40 to really understand what I’m talking about there.
In the spring of 1978, there was a parade in downtown Little Rock for the Orange Bowl-winning team, a huge crowd at War Memorial for the second spring game … and it got stormed out when a serious thunderstorm and tornado watches caused Lou Holtz to just say, “forget it,” and it was cancelled.
There’s no need for a parade before the spring game this year. But it’s a good guess the crowd will be large. Shoot, there may even be tailgating before the game. It wouldn’t be totally shocking if the entire coaching staff and Hunter Yurachek made the tailgate rounds.
And that is something that has never been seen at a spring game that I’m aware of.
Spring practice starts this week in Fayetteville and it will be a busy one. There’s basketball and five baseball games this coming week.
And, with Morris’ open invitation to high school coaches, more recruiting.
Always recruiting.
Which could pay huge dividends much, much faster than even the most enthusiastic fans could image.
