Arkansas ready to turn corner against A&M
HOOVER, Ala. — LSU has it in for Texas A&M and is angling for payback after the Aggies’ 74-72 seven-overtime victory over the Tigers last season. But LSU isn’t the SEC West program pining to beat A&M the most — not by a long shot.
For Arkansas, the game on Sept. 28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, is more personal. Razorbacks coach Chad Morris is a native Texan and an Aggie, but A&M turned to Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher over Morris, then at SMU, to coach the Aggies in December 2017.
A year ago, Fisher passed over one returning starting quarterback at A&M in in favor of another, selecting Kellen Mond over Nick Starkel.
“Even when we were competing, his leadership skills were something that set him apart,” Mond said this week during SEC Media Days of Starkel, who announced in March that he was transferring to Arkansas. “We were really close and always competing, but also building each other up. He’s vocal, and he’s got a strong arm and can play with a lot of quarterbacks in the nation.”
Starkel, a junior, is in a battle with SMU senior transfer Ben Hicks do see which one will take snaps against the Aggies and others this fall, but there is no doubt that both quarterbacks will hand off to Rakeem Boyd in the backfield.
Boyd transferred from A&M two years ago and spent a season at Independence Community College in Kansas before signing to play at Arkansas. Last season, he averaged 6 yards per carry and led the Razorbacks with 899 allpurpose yards.
The Razorbacks’ John Chavis arrived at A&M from LSU nearly five years ago, bringing with him a reputation as one of the top defensive coordinators in college football. But he left College Stationnearly two years ago angry and in search of redemption when Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin and most of his staff were fired.
Last season, Chavis’ charges finished toward the bottom in the SEC in total defense, scoring defense, pass defense and rush defense — so any redemption has yet to arrive.
“With coach Chavis at the helm for year two, our defense is built on speed and stopping the run,” said Morris, who pledged that Arkansas’ defense will be better this season. “In understanding it’s a line-of-scrimmage league, too, we signed seven defensive linemen … I feel like we have the pieces in place in year two defensively.”
Morris, 50, was in the process of rebuilding SMU two years ago and was considered Texas A&M’s top backup candidate if the Aggies didn’t get Fisher. About the same time Fisher took the A&M job, Arkansas pulled Morris from Dallas to replace the fired Bret Bielema.
Morris grew up with the A&M Arkansas series before the Razorbacks exited the now-defunct Southwest Conference for the SEC after the 1991 season.
While Fisher last season led the Aggies (9-4) to nine victories for the first time since 2013, the Razorbacks finished 2-10 and 0-8 in SEC play. They failed to win at least three games in a season for the first time since 1952, when they finished 2-8.
“When you take a head football coaching job, you know that establishing and enhancing a culture is your top priority,” Morris said. “It takes time, and it takes consistency, and there’s a certain process to follow to develop the results you’re looking for. Year in and year out, we want to compete for championships.
“But to win championships, first you’ve got to develop champions, and our staff is doing a tremendous job of that — of recruiting that way and turning young men into champions. But it doesn’t happen overnight.”
Neither does beating Texas A&M, no matter the coach. While the Aggies have their fair share of trouble in the SEC West since joining the conference in 2012, they are 7-0 against the Razorbacks in that span, with three of the last five meetings going to overtime.
Last September and five games into the season, A&M played what Fisher dubbed at the time “our worst football game of the year by far” and still beat Arkansas 24-17, thanks to safety Donovan Wilson’s interception with a little more than a minute remaining.
“It’s not even about us, it’s about the fans,” Razorbacks senior defensive lineman McTelvin Agim said of Arkansas’ agitation toward the Aggies. “They want that win as much as we do. We’ve got to get it back for the fans.”