Friendly foes
Morris, Malzahn relationship goes back to high school coaching days.
AUBURN, Ala. — Curiosity and persistence had life-changing consequences for Chad Morris 15 football seasons ago. After a down year as head coach at perennial power Stephenville (Texas) High School, Morris sought out a fastrising prep coach in Arkansas who was running offensive plays as quickly as possible, not huddling and causing defenses fits.
Morris called Springdale
High School coach Gus
Malzahn in the winter of
2003, asking whether he and his staff could take a look at Malzahn’s operation.
Tonight, Morris and
Malzahn — two of the bestknown former high school coaches in the country — will square off for the first time as head coaches. They were the top two selections for University of Arkansas officials last winter in their search to replace head football coach Bret Bielema.
After Malzahn turned the Hogs down and agreed to terms on a seven-year, $49 million contract with Auburn, UA officials set their sights on Morris, who has said he would have walked backward from SMU to take the Razorbacks’ reins.
Malzahn’s No. 9 Auburn Tigers (21, 0-1 SEC) are 29½-point favorites for tonight’s 6:30 game against Morris and the Razorbacks (1-2, 0-0).
Morris said his curiosity with Malzahn, who wrote a book in 2003 titled The Hurry Up, No Huddle: An Offensive Philosophy, came from a need to stay on the front end of the curve.
“We had had tremendous success for four straight years and then we go through a bend in the road,” Morris said. “And I knew that the game was changing, and I knew I had to evolve and it didn’t matter the success we’d had in the past, it was all about how this game was evolving.
“To be able to come up here and see a unique way at that time of playing at a very fast pace, it just taught me a lot, that you have to be constantly looking at what’s next and how the game continues to evolve.”
This week, the longtime friends talked about their initial meeting and subsequent relationship building.
“We’re playing in the state championship game and he called me out of the blue, asking if he could bring his staff and stand on the sidelines,” said Malzahn, who was largely guarded about opening up to a stranger. “I was a little bit leery but I said yeah.”
Morris had no qualms about cold-calling an out-ofstate coach.
“We actually went down and saw him in Little Rock at a game, then came up here [to Fayetteville] in January,” Morris said. “There were several times, I took a couple of trips to watch him play … to say, ‘Look, I’d love to talk ball.’
“He was very reserved at that time. It wasn’t until my … persistence [that] he eventually opened up the door and said, ‘Come see us in January.’ So, we did. From that point forward, we’ve talked ball quite a bit.”
The two have conversed several times this season.
“I haven’t talked to him this week. I have talked to him this season, a few times, but not this week, but I’ll see him before the game and everything,” Morris said.
“He’s got a team to coach. I’ve got a team to coach,” Malzahn said.
Malzahn was asked why he let Morris behind the curtain
all those years ago.
“I think just the fact of being an Arkansas high school football coach and the respect that you have for the Texas high school coaches,” Malzahn said. “It just kind of started that way. Then we figured out our philosophies are very similar.
“And then, he’s such a great guy. So it was easy to become friends, and so really that’s how it started.”
Paula Morris and Kristi Malzahn, the coaches’ wives, also became buddies and remain so today.
Todd Graham, a head coach at four schools in 12 seasons, hired both Malzahn (in 2007) and Morris (in 2010) as his offensive coordinator at the University of Tulsa. Graham, speaking at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club this week, said he takes great pride in two of his coordinators now coaching in the SEC West.
“Obviously, the biggest thing is I know what they’re doing in young people’s lives, and teaching them to live championship lives and impact their faith, their family,” Graham said. “I’m very proud when I watch that to see the
impact they’re having. It’s pretty cool to watch.”
Graham said it won’t be hard for Morris and Malzahn to compete.
“These guys are intense competitors, and obviously Gus has got a job to do and Chad has got a job to do,” Graham said. “They’re going to go at it. There ain’t going to be any friends on Saturday. After the game they will be, but not during it, I can guarantee you that.”
Morris and Malzahn met once as offensive coordinators in 2011. Morris’ Clemson team won 38-24 against Malzahn and defending national champion Auburn at Clemson, S.C.
The two men are in vastly different circumstances early in the 2018 season, though both are coming off losses.
Malzahn inherited a talented roster at Auburn, made the biggest turnaround in the nation in 2013 while winning the SEC and came within a few seconds of winning the BCS national championship before falling to Florida State. His 2017 team rallied from an early loss to LSU to beat No. 2 Georgia and No. 1 Alabama in a two-week span before falling
to the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game.
The Tigers hope to pull off the same kind of rally after falling 22-21 at home to LSU last week.
“We need to rebound from last week,” Malzahn said. “Our guys have been very focused this week. We’re expecting Arkansas’ best. They’re a team with a new coach that we know is going to improve each week.”
Morris was dealt a tougher rebuilding hand with the Razorbacks. Arkansas fell to 4-8 last season, and it is fighting a trend of blowing second-half leads that stretches back to the first year after Bobby Petrino’s departure.
Arkansas lost an 18-point second half lead in its 3427 loss at Colorado State in Week 2, giving Morris the latest addition to that list.
“I think the biggest challenge that we’re facing right now is just being able to overcome both success and adversity as it comes,” Morris said. “It comes and goes through the course of the games and we’ve experienced that several times over the last couple of weeks. Just to understand
that, ‘Look, it’s a long game. You’ve got to play the entire game out. It’s not over until all the zeros are on the time.’ ”
Graham said Morris will turn Arkansas around.
“The things that Chad Morris brings, the values that he’s going to instill, the things that are going to build championships of the future, you haven’t seen those things yet and what he’s going to do as far as building relationships, positive relationships, building men of character and being able to instill his system in,” Graham said. “Yeah it’s tough, but there’s no doubt in my mind, I have 100 percent belief in him.”
Malzahn believes in Morris’ ability to make Arkansas into a winner, as long as it happens after this game.
“Look at Clemson now, and when everything really changed for them is when they hired Chad Morris,” Malzahn said. “He got the offense going, recruited DeShaun Watson and look at them now.
“He went to SMU when it was low, low, low and he got them out of it, and he’ll do the same thing there.”