I Think Chad Is Going to Love Arkansas

[gostangs]

Paula Morris sat behind me at Ford Stadium, in this video, was the first time I saw her smile in 3 seasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBQpzqbi_sM

Coming from Clemson (where I was told the family really enjoyed living), she might be glad to get out of the Dallas congestion and back to a smaller town with beautiful natural scenery. For those who think she will miss all the Dallas shopping...there's this new fangled thing called internet shopping where you can have things delivered to your home!

Or maybe she is smiling like someone who's husband just got a 2 MILLION dollar raise. Some of y'all are just so naïve. I'm sure its about the natural scenery of Arkansas, or the huge numbers of people in Arkansas that have nothing else to do.

[gostangs]

Anyone that doesn’t understand why he left, has not been to a P5 game lately. Like comparing 6 man football to 6A football. Opposing fanbases outcheer us with 1/10 the fans in our own stadium... we had 11 students at the Tulane game doing the cheers... I counted

Its not about how many fans come to the coach, except that helps their recruiting. He got a 2 Million dollar raise - and now has a shot to be in the upper tier in his profession. Anyone would take that, and it is no shame on SMU that he left for that opportunity and that pay check.

[MV pony]

its the polar opposite of SMU Fans--everybody ought to experience a few games in Fayetteville or Little Rock. I'm happy he is going to get the Fan Support he deserves. I can see Chad, Miss Paula, McKenzie and Chandler "Callin the Hawgs"-can't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCsQr5i-xnQ

Thanks for the laughs and memories. Love seeing a bunch of hogs in hog heaven going hog wild. Silly rednecks. Hogs stink.

[Nacho]

I was there when we beat them in Fayetteville. Our last victory there. Sweet. Hog fans weren't happy. Was kinda afraid.

[Charleston Pony]

Or part of his motivation for leaving SMU for Arkansas, aside from the obvious pay raise...just might be having a legitimate opportunity to compete for a national championship...something you simply cannot do at a G5 school. Chad Morris is a guy who wants to compete at the highest level.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

Or part of his motivation for leaving SMU for Arkansas, aside from the obvious pay raise...just might be having a legitimate opportunity to compete for a national championship...something you simply cannot do at a G5 school. Chad Morris is a guy who wants to compete at the highest level.

Theoretically you are right, practically speaking, there is no way in hades that Arkansas is a national contender with the teams they have to compete against.

I hate the title of this thread - so passive aggressive.

[Charleston Pony]

Or part of his motivation for leaving SMU for Arkansas, aside from the obvious pay raise...just might be having a legitimate opportunity to compete for a national championship...something you simply cannot do at a G5 school. Chad Morris is a guy who wants to compete at the highest level.

Theoretically you are right, practically speaking, there is no way in hades that Arkansas is a national contender with the teams they have to compete against.

I hate the title of this thread - so passive aggressive.

Time will tell but at least he will have an opportunity competing in the SEC

[mrydel]

Clemson does pretty well. Chad will build the same team in Arkansas.

[SMU_Alum11]

I think Chad will do what he did best: high-tempo offense. I think he's going to lack D unless he can get a great coordinator in there. My guess though is Arky isn't going to be rolling for at least 2 years. That third year is going to be high-stress for CM and I think he might miss the cold icy chair that SMU provided but we will see.

[PoconoPony]

Spent a year and a half at Ark in the late 60s doing post graduate work. At that time, a very strange state and culture. If you were from Arkansas you were accepted, if not, you were always an outsider and never trusted or accepted. They ran Lou Holtz out of there despite resurrecting a floundering program. If you are not from Arkansas there is little tolerance and this is the reason they have historically always tried to hire an Ark person. I wish Chad the best and hope that times have changed; however, believe they will very quickly turn on him if he is not successful immediately.

[GiddyUp]

its the polar opposite of SMU Fans--everybody ought to experience a few games in Fayetteville or Little Rock. I'm happy he is going to get the Fan Support he deserves. I can see Chad, Miss Paula, McKenzie and Chandler "Callin the Hawgs"-can't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCsQr5i-xnQ

Please go with him Your lovefest needs to stop, it's kinda creepy. Let's say they loved him like you want them to. Sure, maybe he deserved a few bucks raise...he still leaves this year, so it doesn't matter.

[mrydel]

Spent a year and a half at Ark in the late 60s doing post graduate work. At that time, a very strange state and culture. If you were from Arkansas you were accepted, if not, you were always an outsider and never trusted or accepted. They ran Lou Holtz out of there despite resurrecting a floundering program. If you are not from Arkansas there is little tolerance and this is the reason they have historically always tried to hire an Ark person. I wish Chad the best and hope that times have changed; however, believe they will very quickly turn on him if he is not successful immediately.

This is not your 60s Arkansas. The MSA (and Ft Smith) has a population of about 1,000,000. It is one of the wealthiest areas in the country ( think Walmart, Tyson’s, and Stephens). It has a nice regional airport. In the 60s there was a school and a few banjo players.

[footballdad]

The other side of that is that is Hicks, Quinn, Proche, Jones, Freeman, etc. will all have more experience and there will be others ready to step up. I know our schedule will be substantially more daunting so I expect regression due to difficult of schedule. However, if Chad really was doing such a great job recruiting then we should have at least 3 great classes of recruits ready to play and win. Sign a great coach pretty soon and we would have 4 great classes of recruits.

Therein lies the problem. As others have pointed out, Morris recruiting was average/good, nowhere near great. Also very heavily skewed to the offense, and even there, he never got his QB. It is primarily Stallion's love affair with Morris that left the impression that Morris was recruiting at the 'great' level. Also, the comparisons of Morris recruiting vs JJ recruiting, gave the false impression that he was recruiting great. He WAS recruiting great compared to JJ........just not relative to the rest of the AAC.

Looking forward, that defensive roster is

[Stallion]

It was [deleted] incredible recruiting off of 1, 2 and 5 wins--we got hit hard last year with the late Texas and Baylor openings-otherwise we finish around Top 50- 3 of the decommitments already starting games at P5 level-but that's what happens to 5 win teams recruiting P5 level talent at the G5 level when you play before 8,000 people

This is going to be fun to watch-hopefully some of you pay attention-because Chad will knock recruiting out of the park at Arkansas.

[gostangs]

it was hard not to love Chad - so much upbeat energy and flat out hard work. We got the right guy and I wish he would have stayed. That said - the visible results were just ok. Anyone would have improved on where we were as a program.

The question is was he really an elite recruiter - and the AAC rankings would tell you the answer was no. Also although the direction of the program is unmistakably up, the win loss relative to our schedule is not remarkable.

Bottom line - we can reload and not miss a beat. Need to stay at the top of our conference and build a better fan base in Dallas over time.