Can Morris’ Hogs surpass modest expectations?

FAYETTEVILLE — Perhaps new University of Arkansas Coach Chad Morris should consider himself lucky inheriting a Razorbacks team without hint of a national ranking.

Coming off last year’s 4-8 overall [1-7 in the SEC] campaign ending the Bret Bielema era, the Razorbacks grace no polls before Saturday’s season-opener against Eastern Illinois.

Of Morris’ three Arkansas predecessors debuting in this century, only one began by inheriting personnel projected to achieve national significance.

That one, John L. Smith, had the shortest tenure. Hired away in 2012 from his just-accepted head coaching job at Weber State, Smith had Arkansas experience assisting Coach Bobby Petrino from 20092011, plus 18 years head coaching experience at Idaho, Utah State, Louisville and Michigan State, to be former Arkansas Athletics Director Jeff Long’s April choice when Petrino had to be fired.

Petrino, it was learned through circumstances of his April 1, 2012, motorcycle accident, violated UA policy by hiring his mistress to the UA’s football administrative payroll.

Long’s choice for Smith providing 2012 continuity from an 11-2 season in 2011 did not fare well. Opening 2012 nationally ranked 10th by The Associated Press, Smith’s Hogs crashed in the season’s second game, a 34-31 overtime loss in Little Rock to heavy underdog Louisiana-Monroe.

The Razorbacks were never were ranked again. Arkansas finished a floundering 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the SEC.

Those troubles of 2012 gave Bielema, with a 68-24 record the previous seven years at Wisconsin backing him up, a 2013 debut year without heat even while going 3-9 overall and 0-8 in the SEC.

Patience was temporarily rewarded. Under Bielema, the Razorbacks in 2014 and 2015 steadily progressed off the field in academics and team conduct and on the field, going 7-6 and 8-5 for 2014 and 2015, respectively.

The wheels came off the Bielema regime, closing at 7-6 what likely should have been 9-4 for 2016.

Arkansas closed by losing a 24-7 halftime lead in a 28-24 loss at Missouri and losing a 24-0 halftime lead in a 35-24 Belk Bowl loss to Virginia Tech. At the Belk Bowl, one Hog was caught shoplifting despite the Belk Bowl already providing gifts. Another was ejected during the game for spitting on an opponent.

Bielema’s 2017 Hogs never recovered from their 2016 finish. They stumbled to 4-8 and 1-7 and Bielema was fired minutes after the last game.

Though going 10-4 and 8-5 in 2006 and 2007 the soap opera-like controversies during Houston Nutt’s final coaching seasons, plus All-American underclassmen running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones turning pro while a large senior class departed, lowered expectations for Petrino’s 2008 debut.

Petrino debuted 5-7. But he boosted high hopes for the future by upsetting LSU in the season finale.

Now along comes Morris debuting with Razorbacks he deems poised to surprise “laying in the weeds.”

Laying in the weeds doesn’t sound ideal, but for a debuting coach, it can beat precariously opening on a Top 10 ledge looking down.