Yea but the lack of discipline was a serious issue for me which I felt contributed to us losing games late both this year and last year. He is a players coach and that works but you need the players and he had some challenges recruiting which he didn’t have in the Big X. At least from my perspective.
Keep the questions coming. I'm not sure what to say about that comparison. Prior to Chad, Dabo was rumored to be meddling with the play calling because he wanted to be spread while Napier was more of a pro style guy. We were coming off a 6-7 season and an absolute ass kicking in Meineke Car Care bowl, who we lost to USF in. Chad came in and while Dabo had say in the game plan, Chad ran things. Dabo though did his best to mold it as "Clemson's offense" even before Chad started chasing other opportunities. It's one of the reasons why the transition from Chad to Elliott and Scott was so smooth. A couple things you have to remember prior to Chad being hired as our OC. Boyd and Allen were already on campus so was Nuk. Clemson already had commits from Bryant, Sammy, Humphries and Peake at wr. So he was coming into a well stocked cupboard of talent. The main things Chad is known for at Clemson is a shift in how we recruit and evaluate offensive linemen, Deshaun da God, and a brand that has lasted. It's why you will struggle to find anyone in the fan base to say anything negative about him. If he can make a good dc hire, he can be a success for y'all.
I know these feels, same with us and Riley compared to Pelini. Hope you guys do work in your division. Easy to like compared to basically....everybody.
Can't defend the collapses from last year -Best RB Rawleigh Williams has spine injury and has to retire -Best CB and best player on D Ryan Pulley tears his pec and is out for the year -Starting CB hurts his shoulder and misses 4 games -Best OL in the league and team leader breaks his foot and misses the 2nd half of the season -best WR ruptures his Achilles in a non contact injury against aTm and misses most of the season -Chase Hayden gets hurt and misses a few games to end the season -stud freshman WR Koilan Jackson tears his ACL before the season. Would have been a big contributor -RB TJ Hammonds has the meniscus tear before the season and is used very sparingly to start the year And there were several more. But Pulley, Cornelius, RW3, and Ragnow were killers
Agree on the injuries. I've never in my life seen a team I was following have that many key injuries across a season. It is hard to make it through any season regardless of who is coaching when you have a list of injuries like that. I hope I never have to witness a Razorback team go through that again.
Not sure if anyone saw but you can pull up the video of the Team Introduction on the Arkansas Razorback website. http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/chad-morris-first-team-meeting/ Solid intro, lots of talk, gotta back it up.
He’s said all the right things so far. I like it. Let’s see what he does with the tail end of this recruiting season. I loved what he said about defense.
They asked him about Brent and he said: "Coach Swinney really wouldn't like that." He didn't give names though.
Sure seemed like it to be honest. He kind of dodged the question. When they followed up on it about staff, he said it is his job to hire the Defense, and he wants someone familiar with defending in the SEC and some he has played against which impressed him. Said he has a short list. They head in to a staff meeting in an hour. Not sure who all will be attending.
For the record we did not look just like Arkansas seven years ago. Y'all have a nicer team meeting room
Dude it's not happening Otis' batting average is worse than bturns striking out repeatedly with girls at the bar.
If it's going to be a splash I think Kevin Steele is more likely than BV Having said that, we are Arkansas so we'll probably get over the hill John Chavis and continue to suck on defense
Watching the pc now. He was clunky and awkward early on when thanking everyone but once he started talking football he started rolling. What he said about high school recruiting gave me tingles.
Venables is staying at clemson until a HC job opens up. His contract is very cost prohibitive if he makes a lateral move. You'd have to add $1mm to any salary you pay him if you include the buyout.
Good. But, yall won the lotto with hiring morris. He's not joking when he says he has the Clemson blueprint. Get excited because yall around a couple years away from competing for SEC championships and playoff appearances.
Thinking the generational talents that showed up in Clemson at the same time is more of an impact, but hoping you are right
Nah. I mean obviously having elite talent is a part of the formula, but he's an excellent coach that'll definitely get you back to 10 wins and competing for championships. He only coached watson for a year.
Well we all know it is dependent on talent, but if you don't have someone recruiting their ass off, you won't get the talent no matter where they grow up. The fact Chad already has mentioned and hit on the importance of recruiting fast, hard, and quickly is encouraging. For all Bert's faults I believe the most critical was his lack of a cohesive strategy around recruiting. It is different in the SEC from up north and in my mind it is more competitive. You can see what Bert was able to do with talent when he went in and beat teams handedly. What excites me about Chad is the stories about him being the first to offer several players (Watson included) and that at SMU once offered, several students saw other Texas schools follow suit sending out offers and evaluating kids simply because Chad had already offered. It is absolutely possible to recruit to Arkansas, just like it is to recruit to Clemson. Recent Clemson success I would say has obviously made things easier and helped with higher profile recruits. I have said it all along, if we can get a hard nosed recruiter who can sell this program, we can be successful. Fuck that little Ole Arkansas mentality. If you look at SMU he had resources to focus on things like the TempoCopter, and things which kids will take notice of. I also like they fact he is already setting in home meetings and reaching out to kids with offers.
I know he needed a better ACT score and that was a big reason we hadn't offered... but I wasn't under the impression he was Bama quality.
the rationale behind not offering kids because of their act/sat test scores is so dumb. if you commit and dont qualify then sorry you cant sign the letter on signing day and you dont have anyone to blame but youself.
also, this is the year to go ahead and let a kid or two like that sign since we cant sign a full class anyway. if they somehow qualify we can tell someone like nate dalton to kick rocks.
This is a great hire for Arkansas. They obviously wanted Gus badly, and now they have a Gus disciple who will bring the same offense and aggression with him. He has great ties to high school ball in Texas and will be able to recruit there, and he worked for four seasons at Clemson and saw how Dabo built the program to a championship level. This dude used to camp out in Gainesville to watch the GOAT play high school basketball. Imagine having DW4 at your practice hanging out with your coach when you've got recruits in town. I'm sure it will happen. He can tell kids living in the state of Texas that he coached Deshaun Watson and Nuk Hopkins. I imagine those two guys are pretty popular in the Lone Star state right now.
Obviously I'd love for it to happen, but there are two or three others I'd be almost as happy about. Morris and Venables would have me all "Look at me...I'm the Clemson now" but I know not to count on such things. Besides, it would probably end our brand new and blossoming relationship with all these wonderful Clemson posters.
I mean if we got Brent it would only be a year maybe two because someone is going to give him a HC job.
Because then you lose part of your recruiting class? Why offer, have the kid commit, he signs the LOI in February and then doesn’t qualify come May. And then the program is left with their pants around their ankles and one less freshman on campus.
the hogs can't sign 25 this year anyway--don't let him sign the LOI until he's qualified. seems pretty reasonable to me.
Only happens if you don't have a plan if it doesn't happen. I rather offer a 4 and end up falling back on an iffy
Clemson fans have already pretty much covered it, but by the time the season starts your entire fanbase will be crazy about Morris. Great at marketing and working the crowd and very impressive guy. When he came to Clemson as OC we all wanted retread guys that we used to lose to at other schools. Strong sentiment he was out of his depth. After a springs worth of interviews, we all loved him and what he stood for, by the time the season started we thought we'd be good even though we were coming off a 6-7 season, and he totally delivered. Just has an amazing attitude and projects great leadership to the fanbase. His offensive identity was great too. The aggressive up tempo offense mixed with his personality was very popular. Also a good recruiter and successful talent evaluator. Beyond landing Watson, Wayne Gallman and Jordan Leggett, two of our better skill guys in school history were 3 star Morris guys. By the time he left, we were sure OSU and some other schools were following our offers directly.