Hogs to focus on future while still trying to win
FAYETTEVILLE - Realistically, it seemed the bowl hopes for these Razorbacks vanished when they lost the September nonconference games with Colorado State and North Texas that they were projected to win.
Given the SEC schedule ahead, adjusting to a new coaching staff and new offense and inheriting talent that went 4-8 overall/ 1-7 last year under former Coach Bret Bielema, 6-6 minimum bowl eligible seemed about the best these Hogs would do.
Now with the mathematical finality struck home of last Saturday’s 45-31 loss to Vanderbilt putting Arkansas, 2-7, overall/ 0-5 in the SEC with three games to play, this open date week seems the only real chance for Coach Chad Morris to cram in the December type bowl practices his Hogs can’t get.
It’s the ideal time to scrimmage the scout-teamers and redshirts with the varsity coaches rather than just grad assistants evaluating.
And, with the new rule allowing players to play a maximum four games and still redshirt preserving their 2018 eligibility for 2019, the staff has decisions to make about maybe introducing some of their un-played or seldom played freshmen into the final games that start Nov. 10 hosting LSU at Reynolds Razorback Stadium and finish Nov. 17 at Mississippi State and Nov. 23 in the day after Thanksgiving finale at Missouri.
For instance, Connor Noland, the true freshman quarterback from Greenwood who mopped up in the North Texas game and started the victory over Tulsa when junior starter Ty Storey was idled by a concussion, needs only to sit out one of the next three games to preserve his freshman eligibility for next season.
Noah Gatlin, the freshman offensive tackle who was an
emergency early-season starter when Colton Jackson was still rehabbing from July back surgery, is another who if used judiciously still could get more 2018 game experience yet remain a freshman next season.
Morris certainly has cause to use much of 2018 to build on 2019 but in his postgame press conference last Saturday also made clear he expected these Hogs to play to win and not just play out the string.
And yes, he’s been here before, inheriting a 1-11 SMU program that went 2-10 his first year then improved to 5-7 and and a Frisco Bowl bound 7-5 under his third year Mustangs watch before taking the Arkansas job last December.
“We can reference back only so many times,” Morris replied to a question about first-year similarities to what he experienced at SMU and experiences at Arkansas. “At some point we have to make a step. We’ve got to do something to get us out of that rut. There’s a lot of similarities that I’ve shared this year, but that’s no excuse. We’re going to continue to go back to work.”
Morris was most disappointed that a defense that skunked Tulsa, 23-0 in the Oct. 20 victory was scored on for 45 Vanderbilt points and unable to stop the ground game, amassing 250 yards on 49 carries. Ke’Shawn Vaughn had 26 carries for 172 yards and three touchdowns, the first a 63-yard burst.
Offensively, Morris could cite running backs Rakeem Boyd, 19 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown and Chase Hayden, 5 carries for 70 yards including a 38-yard touchdown, and tight end Cheyenne “C.J. O’Grady, 6 catches for 83 yards and a touchdown, and walk-on receiver Tyson Morris 3 catches for 19 yards with an 11-yard touchdown.
Chad Morris made note of them all and place-kicker Connor Limpert, his 10 for 10 string stopped short on the longest collegiate attempt of his life, a 60-yarder just before half, and coming back to kick a career long 55-yarder in the third quarter.
“Connor has gotten better each week,” Morris said. “He’s been a consistency for us over the last several weeks. I wish he could have hit that 60-yarder right before half but him coming back and hitting that 55-yarder was big for him and his confidence, He hit it and it would have went for 60.”
The Razorbacks were completely off Sunday and had meetings Monday, their normal day off and have completely closed practices today, Wednesday and Thursday with Morris next media availability on Wednesday’s SEC Coaches teleconference.
Asked during last Saturday’s press conference his bye-week message to his team off the Vanderbilt loss, Morris said, “We know that our goals of getting to a bowl game are not attainable. As I shared with our players, our culture is not going to change. I’m not changing. Our coaching staff’s not going to change. We’re going to continue to show up every day and coach hard. We’re going to find out who’s on board.”