Faster, not bigger, is best under new UA regime

FAYETTEVILLE — Bigger is better worked well for former Arkansas football coach Bret Bielema and former Arkansas strength coach Ben Herbert in their Big Ten days at Wisconsin.

But working to “have speed instead of chasing speed,” worked well for new Arkansas coach Chad Morris and new Arkansas strength coach Trumain Carroll turning around a SMU program that was 1-11 in 2014 before Morris’ arrival into a 7-5 record in 2017 before Morris joined Arkansas in December.

The contrasting bigger is better philosophy often prevalent in the Big Ten, with Herbert in the Big Ten again as Michigan’s strength coach, against the premium on speed, especially found in the SEC and the ACC’s southern schools, manifests in Arkansas senior offensive right guard Johnny Gibson of Dumas.

Originally a walk-on earning a starting position since 2016 under Bielema, the 6-foot-4 Gibson remains listed 345 pounds on the Razorbacks roster from Bielema days.

Since working under Morris and Carroll upon starting the UA spring semester in January, Gibson says. “Not anymore” to that 345 he said upped to “around 347, 348.”

“Coach Tru always tells us ‘It’s not about a number, it’s about how you can handle it,” Gibson said. “I can probably get down to 320. But this 325, that’s a good weight for me. Now I just need to transform it and play better with it.”

CLARIFYING YURACHEK COMMENT

A poorly written sentence on my part not clarifying the pronoun “his” in last Saturday’s column on new Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek likely caused some readers to think Yurachek doesn’t extend a coach’s hand for a bonus winning a conference championship.

Actually, during the interview Yurachek stressed that successful coaches absolutely should be rewarded for success.

The authored “his” in the sentence referred to Yurachek contractually not extending his own hand for an athletic director’s bonus, which is common contractually in today’s athletics when a program wins a conference or national championship. An athletic director’s bonus for championships won is not in his contract, Yurachek acknowledged.

“Some of my colleagues around the country probably thought I was crazy and might be upset with me for saying this on the record,” Yurachek said. “But I felt the University of Arkansas is paying me very well to be director of athletics and part of my job is to set the table and make sure our teams have the opportunities for success. I don’t want any bonuses in my contract for what I feel is me just doing my job.”

THE PLUMBER’S FRIEND

In describing Chad Morris’ switching the terminology for Razorbacks receivers from letters, X,Y and Z, to numbers, 2, 5 and 9 as the current receivers designations, it seems junior Razorbacks receiver Jonathan Nance could be mistaken for an allstar plumber.

“I’ve been running 1 as a 2,” Nance explained, chuckling.

So he seems flushed with success operating No. 1 from a No. 2 business.