Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
‘Lying in the weeds’
Morris sets his own expectations
Second in a series previewing the 2018 SEC football season.
ATLANTA — History and circumstances indicate Chad Morris will not have great success in his first season with the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Morris inherits a team that went 4-8 last season, won one SEC game and is a common pick to finish last in the SEC West again this season.
The 49-year-old Texan addressed the expectations in his first trip to SEC media days Tuesday at the College Football Hall of Fame.
“Whether we’re picked to finish first or finish last is irrelevant
at this point in time,” Morris said. “The way I look at it, nobody’s played a snap yet. There’s a lot to prove.”
Later, while addressing statewide media only, Morris said he and the program have their own designs for 2018.
“There’s a lot of expectations we have,” he said. “Now everybody else may not have a lot of expectations, but we do, and I’m excited about that because I know the hunger level, and I know the work and the drive that these guys have put in.
“I promise you we’re in a great position right now. We’re lying in the weeds. I love where we’re at in this whole situation.”
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville players Hjalte Froholdt, Dre Greenlaw and Santos Ramirez spoke about
what they’d like their senior year to look like.
“I want my senior year to be about how we went out from going 4-8, and we got a new coaching staff, the best coaching staff in the nation, and we changed things around with the same players we had last year and the year before,” Greenlaw said. “I think we can.
“Like I said, a lot of games we lost, half of it was mental and half of it was physical. I feel like Coach Morris has come in and amped the game up. Like he says, his standard is the best.”
Morris said Ramirez told him Dec. 7 that the Razorbacks did not want to go down the same road they followed in 2017.
“I want people to look back on my senior year and remember it as a year that we turned around the Arkansas Razorbacks, that we started a tradition and a culture of winning,” Ramirez said. “I want this year to be remembered as that.
“It’s not about me. It’s never about me. Of course, I want to have a great season, but it’s about winning at the end of the day, and we want people to see 2018 as the first year that everything changed for the better.”
Froholdt had a succinct response to what he wanted as a senior.
“Championship, that’s it,” he said.
Then he added more detail about expectations.
“I understand media will want to say we picked you last, and I don’t blame you guys,” he said. “We went 4-8, and we … had a complete coaching change. Of course people would rank us as being lower.
“I think everyone says what I’m saying now, but no one knows what happens behind the curtains. All you’re evaluating us on is a previous year. So much has changed since then. I think it’s only going to be to the positive.”
Froholdt explained how a team’s mentality can shape a season.
“If you’re aiming for anything less than a championship, you’re selling yourself short,” he said. “If you don’t have a championship mentality, say ‘I have a bowl mentality. Let’s win six games. Let’s have a decent season.’ Well then my preparation is going to be to win a bowl. If my preparation is to win a championship, then we’re going to win a championship.”
Morris had the players read Chop Wood Carry Water during the summer, and they’ve held team meetings to discuss the meaning behind Joshua Medcalf’s book, which is subtitled How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great.
Said Ramirez: “It’s about pretty much trusting the process and understanding that every little detail matters.”
In the book, the main character, an archer, wants to become a samurai to honor the memory of his brother.
“He desires to go ahead, and as soon as he gets there to learn how to shoot the bow and be a samurai archer,” Ramirez said, “his sensei tells him, before you can get to that point you’ve got to chop wood, carry water. You’ve got to go through the labor, the hard work and develop the tools that you need, the skill set you need so when it’s time for you to shoot that bow, you’re going to understand everything that goes into shooting that bow.”
Morris said he had his team at SMU read the book a couple of years ago.
“It’s all about the process,” Morris said. “It’s an incredible book. It’s just a unique way of putting the process into a story format that everybody can relate to.”
Morris said discussing the book has been critical in developing chemistry, and the players also would engage in a fall book reading that they will discuss.
“Just another way for us to bond and grow closer together,” he said.
Morris said a couple of times Tuesday that 4-8 is not an acceptable record no matter who is coaching the Razorbacks.
“We’ve heard it, and our players have heard it,” he said
regarding talk of low expectations for the Hogs. “You can’t help not to hear it. It’s how hungry is this football team going to be because of it?
“And we got a lot of returning starters, a lot of returning lettermen, that experienced the season that they had last year.”
The combined record for first-year Arkansas coaches since Frank Broyles in 1958 is 55-56-3.
Broyles had a losing record in his first year at 5-6. The Razorbacks’ last three coaches’ first seasons were Bobby Petrino at 5-6 in 2008, John L. Smith at 4-8 in 2012 and Bret Bielema at 3-9 in 2013.
Danny Ford (6-4-1) and Houston Nutt (9-3) posted winning records in 1993 and 1998, respectively, the only coaches since Lou Holtz (111 in 1977) and Ken Hatfield (7-4-1 in 1984) to win in their first season with the Hogs.
Morris would like to join the latter category, and he’s had many discussions with the players about how to make it happen.
“They understand what’s being said, and as I share with them all the time, just be yourself and be the guy in the moment,” he said, “and be the best you can be, and all that other stuff will take care of itself.”