Arkansas’ Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon met with the media Thursday to talk about Saturday’s matchup with the Gophers.
Morris: ‘Get in left lane and put the hammer down’
You get the feeling there’s no need to ask Chad Morris for a timeline.
The guy doesn’t appear to do much of anything slow when it comes to football and at his introductory press conference Thursday he may have come up with what are probably words to live by:
“Get in the left lane and put the hammer down.”
He’s not just talking about his offense. This guy goes at warp speed just walking across the room.
Which is a refreshing change of pace.
“You won’t find a more explosive offense in college football,” he promised.
It’s been awhile since Razorback fans got to hear those words. Bret Bielema’s offensive approach was hardly in the conversation. It was a slow, methodical approach.
Morris wants to go all the time.
“There won’t be much time to sit in the seats,” he warned fans. “We will play fast.”
Morris’ teams at SMU had a lot of offense. There wasn’t much defense, but if you look across the landscape of college football nobody in the non-Power 5 group of schools plays a lot of defense.
It comes down to selling tickets and depth. Coaches tend to put their best players on offense and the defensive depth gets rather thin on most schools on that level. Depth is what truly separates them from the bigger boys.
There’s the feeling Morris is going to put more emphasis on defense here than he did at SMU and he knows what teams have to stop in the SEC.
“Defensively, we’ll be built around stopping the run,” he said. “We’ll hire the best defensive coordinator in college football. That’s the standard.”
He didn’t give any indication who that might be, but the guess is it won’t be Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables.
But defense will be something that is important. Many fans see the eye-popping numbers his offense put up at SMU … and how the defense gave up whopping numbers.
That’s the difference in caliber of play and the type players they get. Arkansas’ current roster has more defensive talent than SMU has had simply because that’s the nature of the beast.
Listening to him, though, it’s something fans want to hear.
“I want players extremely upset at the end of the game because they have to wait seven days to hit again,” he said of his defensive players. “We want to be explosive and create turnovers on special teams.”
Now the challenge is doing it.
While fans think there aren’t any players here that’s not true from this corner.
Oh, there’s not enough sheer talent to pick them over Alabama, but this was not 4-8 talent.
And he wasted little time starting to get more. He was recruiting before he was airborn out of Dallas headed to Fayetteville.
There will be an increased emphasis on recruiting.
And speed.
Morris even wants linemen to be fast. They’ll have to be in his up-tempo style of play.
But that’s just like everything else about this guy.
Get ready to put the hammer down.
Chad Morris’ first Hog Call as coach of Razorbacks
Watch new Arkansas coach Chad Morris’ first Hog Call at the end of the press conference after his introduction Thursday.
Morris’ first press conference with media
New Arkansas coach Chad Morris met with the media for the first time after being introduced Thursday.
Five things you need to know about Chad Morris
It’s official. Chad Morris was named the 33rd head football coach in University of Arkansas history Wednesday. Here are five things you should know about the Hogs’ new head man.
1. Background — Born on December 4, 1968 in Edgewood, Texas, Morris attended Texas A&M University and earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in statistics in 1992 but did not play college football.
He and his wife, Paula, have two children, a daughter, Mackenzie, and son, Chandler. After 16 years as a head coach at the high school level in Texas, Morris entered the college ranks in 2010 as Tulsa’s offensive coordinator and associate head coach.
He guided the offense to among the nation’s best, a big reason Tulsa improved from 5-7 in 2009 to 10-3 in 2010.
Following the 2010 season he headed to Clemson as Dabo Swinney’s offensive coordinator from 2011-14. Morris went on to get his first head coaching job at SMU, where he spent the last three seasons.
2. Explosive Offense — In Morris’ eight seasons as either a head coach or offensive coordinator, his teams have racked up 46,975 yards of total offense for a 460.5 per game average.
At least once at each of his three stops, he’s produced a top-10 offense a total of four times. Likewise, he’s produced an offense that’s averaged 40 or more points per game in four different seasons.
Under Morris’ fast-paced, no-huddle spread attack, Clemson shattered 127 offensive records (89 individual; 38 team) from 2010-14.
The Tigers also posted the top three scoring seasons in school history, as well as four of the program’s top five passing seasons, during that time.
This season, SMU ranks among the top 15 in the FBS in scoring offense (40.2 points), total offense (493.8 yards) and passing yards (308 yards).
3. Turned It Around — During his three seasons at SMU (2015-17), Morris used his Texas recruiting roots and offensive prowess to take the Mustangs from a 1-11 campaign in 2013 before he took over to the program’s first bowl bid since 2012 with a 7-5 mark this season.
Morris’ offensive scheme was exactly what SMU needed, as it increased its scoring output by 16.7 points per game — the second-largest increase in the nation in 2015.
Even more impressive, Morris inherited an offense that ranked last (128th) in the FBS in scoring in 2014 (11.8) and turned it into the nation’s eighth-highest scoring offensive (40.1) in 2017.
4. Prominent Pupils — Morris was the primary recruiter for and aided in the development of former Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist, led the Tigers to a national title in 2017, and went on to become a first-round NFL draft pick by the Houston Texans.
At Clemson, Morris also coached players like Tajh Boyd (drafted by the New York Jets), Andre Ellington (Arizona Cardinals), DeAndre Hopkins (Houston Texans), Sammy Watkins (Los Angeles Rams), Martavis Bryant (Pittsburgh Steelers), Dwayne Allen (New England Patriots), Tyler Shatley (Jacksonville Jaguars) and Brandon Thomas (Jacksonville Jaguars).
5. Texas Ties — Morris became a legend in Texas during his 16 years as a head coach in the state. He won 82 percent of his games and led Lake Travis High School to back-to-back, undefeated (16-0) state championship seasons.
He won three state titles overall and played in six state championship games. He totaled a 169-38 record (.816) and earned Coach of the Year honors 11 times.
