Reports tab Morris, ‘smashmouth spread’ to Hogs

Multiple reports from ESPN and others are saying the decision has been made that SMU coach Chad Morris will replace Bret Bielema at Arkansas.

There is a press conference scheduled for Wednesday morning with new athletics director Hunter Yurachek and Chancellor Joe Steinmetz.

Morris is a legendary Texas high school coach that has blended several offensive styles into what he calls his version of the “smashmouth spread.”

At SMU her inherited a program that one one game and has slowly turned it into a 7-5 team while recruiting with SMU’s strict academic requirements that are not relaxed for athletics.

Morris’ offense was being developed in the mid-2000’s and a lot of it came after watching what Arkansas was doing with DArren McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis.

He had just replaced Art Briles at Stephenville High School and tried to implement a power-I scheme and, well, it wasn’t working at a school that was an original spread team.

Morris had several brainstorming sessions with Malzahn, developed his offense. He won a state title at Stephenville, moved to Lake Travis and won back-to-back titles.

When Malzahn left as offensive coordinator at Tulsa, he was replaced by Morris, then went to Clemson where his offense turned things around for Dabo Swinney.

The best way to describe it is a run game using old-school wishbone schemes in a multiple spread attack.