Humiliated Hogs search for answers

On the inside

FAYETTEVILLE — In a trying first season as head coach at the University of Arkansas, Chad Morris has had to deliver many postgame remarks about yet another loss.

None of them have seemed as fraught with frustration and fire as his comments after the Razorbacks fell 52-6 at Mississippi State on Saturday.

Morris repeatedly called the performance and the effort of his team “unacceptable” as they fell to 2-9 (0-7 SEC) without providing much in the way of resistance to the primed run-pass attack of the Bulldogs.

“You know what? I’m disappointed,” Morris said. “I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed in the fact of the steps that we’ve been taking in this program and [this] just being unacceptable in all areas.”

Morris said anybody on the team or staff who hadn’t bought in to the new regime didn’t need to attend Sunday’s film review and practice.

Junior quarterback Ty Storey agreed Morris was very upset.

“I think a lot of us are upset,” Storey said. “You can’t perform like that and expect happy people around.”

The Razorbacks who attended postgame interviews — Storey, senior linebacker Dre Greenlaw, senior defensive tackle Armon Watts and sophomore receiver De’Vion Warren — echoed Morris’ comments about the urgency of giving a better effort in Friday’s season finale at Missouri.

“This is really a gut check as a football player and as a man,” Warren said.

“It starts [in] practice, starts throughout the week with our preparation,” Greenlaw said. “We’ve just got to get better at that and just put this behind us.

“We’ve got one more. Hopefully people will find out why they play this game and what they have to fight for.”

Storey was asked about Morris’ insistence that all personnel need to show they’re invested in the program this week.

“You’ve got to buy in,” Storey said. “If someone isn’t bought in, which … I don’t know what it’s like. But if some people aren’t bought

in, then I think he’s obviously wanting you to be bought in or don’t come is basically what he’s saying.”

Watts said, “For this team to get where they want to be, they have to play all together in all phases, and they have to play hard, plain and simple.”

The Razorbacks said the flat performance came out of the blue.

“If we ever went into a game thinking we might get blown up then you probably shouldn’t be playing the game,” Storey said. “I thought we had a good game plan. They definitely did. They had a good game plan. They had some good stuff they brought at us. But we just didn’t answer. It’s as simple as that.”

Warren said he couldn’t see a bad showing coming.

“Definitely not,” he said. “Practice was all high energy, moving around, executing. We did not see this coming at all.”

Mississippi State kicked a field goal on its first possession, punted on its second, then scored touchdowns on seven possessions in a row — five of them after coordinator John “Chief” Chavis came down from the press box to the sideline after the Bulldogs led 17-3 at halftime.

“I thought we executed the plan Chief put together, and to come out here and see it not pay off is really disappointing,” Watts said.