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Comparing Morris to Candidate Requirements
Posted on 12/6/17 at 7:42 am
Posted on 12/6/17 at 7:42 am
I posted these criteria for our next HC a couple of months ago. LINK
I'm updating with how I'd rate Morris in each category (score of 0-10:
-Connections to the south
10. high school connections in East Texas, and a familiarity with CFB culture in the south from his time at Clemson
-Proven winner
5. this is his weakest point, but he still has taken SMU to a potential 8 win season, which has been their ceiling post-death penalty. He also gets some credit for Clemson having a losing record when he arrived, and helping them to a 42-11 record over the next 4 seasons. Still, he hasn't yer achieved major success as a head coach.
-Proven ability to revive a program
10. SMU was a complete dumpster fire, one of the worst teams in CFB and he made them respectable again.
-Good recruiting record
9. As a head coach he has been handicapped by SMUs academic standards, still he proven he can recruit Texas effectively enough. He was able to steal Ben Hicks from superior programs Houston and Texas Tech. He recruited Chad Kelly and the big one, Deshaun Watson, to Clemson from out of state.
-Offensive minded with an innovative philosophy
10. It's hard to imagine making a better hire on this category. He has taken Malzahn's philosophy and improved upon it (and I say this as a reformed GusBusser). He runs and up-tempo spread with a heavy mix of run, which is exactly what I wanted at Arkansas. He took SMU from one of the worst offenses in CFb, to the #8 scoring offense in 2017.
-Would potentially come here
(Leaving this out since we're rating a hire at this point, not a candidate)
- Under 55, the younger the better
9. He's 49. Norvell was significantly younger, but 49 is still very young in coach years. Watch a few YouTube clips and I don't think you'll have any doubts about his energy level.
Overall score is 53/60 = 88%
Which sounds about right. He's not a Gundy-like hire, but among realistic candidates there are very few that would score this high for me.
What I hope to get across with this post is that you can be underwehelemed by his HC record (which seems to be the main complaint about the hire) and still see Morris as a great hire and something to be excited about.
I'm updating with how I'd rate Morris in each category (score of 0-10:
-Connections to the south
10. high school connections in East Texas, and a familiarity with CFB culture in the south from his time at Clemson
-Proven winner
5. this is his weakest point, but he still has taken SMU to a potential 8 win season, which has been their ceiling post-death penalty. He also gets some credit for Clemson having a losing record when he arrived, and helping them to a 42-11 record over the next 4 seasons. Still, he hasn't yer achieved major success as a head coach.
-Proven ability to revive a program
10. SMU was a complete dumpster fire, one of the worst teams in CFB and he made them respectable again.
-Good recruiting record
9. As a head coach he has been handicapped by SMUs academic standards, still he proven he can recruit Texas effectively enough. He was able to steal Ben Hicks from superior programs Houston and Texas Tech. He recruited Chad Kelly and the big one, Deshaun Watson, to Clemson from out of state.
-Offensive minded with an innovative philosophy
10. It's hard to imagine making a better hire on this category. He has taken Malzahn's philosophy and improved upon it (and I say this as a reformed GusBusser). He runs and up-tempo spread with a heavy mix of run, which is exactly what I wanted at Arkansas. He took SMU from one of the worst offenses in CFb, to the #8 scoring offense in 2017.
-Would potentially come here
(Leaving this out since we're rating a hire at this point, not a candidate)
- Under 55, the younger the better
9. He's 49. Norvell was significantly younger, but 49 is still very young in coach years. Watch a few YouTube clips and I don't think you'll have any doubts about his energy level.
Overall score is 53/60 = 88%
Which sounds about right. He's not a Gundy-like hire, but among realistic candidates there are very few that would score this high for me.
What I hope to get across with this post is that you can be underwehelemed by his HC record (which seems to be the main complaint about the hire) and still see Morris as a great hire and something to be excited about.
This post was edited on 12/6/17 at 10:53 am
3
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:15 am to The Sultan of Swine
Good analysis. National Sports media see this as a great fit for Arkansas. He has an energy and style that I really like. Interested to see who his staff will be and if any previous staff is retained.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:28 am to Hogwarts
This hire is making me excited again about Razorback football. Just imagine his offense with Hammonds, Chase Hayden and other speedsters.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:29 am to The Sultan of Swine
quote:
-Proven ability to revive a program
10. SMU was a complete dumpster fire, one of the worst teams in CFB and he made them respectable again.
Made them respectable (7-5) in the AAC. Really don't think what he's done at SMU deserves a 10 rating in that category. Berts first year was 3-9, then 7-6,then 8-5. In the SEC west. That to me is a more respectable turn around than what Morris has accomplished. He's just unproven as a HC. We can look at his Clemson record and what he accomplished there and get excited, but he didn't have enough time at SMU to really show what he could do. For 3 years, it's not overly impressive imo. I'm cautiously optimistic, but really having trouble considering it a home run hire. Very questionable, definitely a gamble. Hopefully it pays off.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:30 am to SouthernHog
I expect we are gonna have about four players on offense that are gonna become household names in this offense. Devwah Whaley, Chase Hayden, Jordan Jones, and Brandon Martin.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:30 am to Hogwarts
From a buy low sell high perspective I think its a great hire potentially.
He's shown the flash and the capability and we're hiring him with some room left to hire a great D-Coord.
Let's face it, we're spending a LOT more on our former mistakes at AD and HC than we are on our current coaching staff...so we need to balance that point also. Just reality.
He's shown the flash and the capability and we're hiring him with some room left to hire a great D-Coord.
Let's face it, we're spending a LOT more on our former mistakes at AD and HC than we are on our current coaching staff...so we need to balance that point also. Just reality.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:40 am to dammitbert
quote:
Made them respectable (7-5) in the AAC. Really don't think what he's done at SMU deserves a 10 rating in that category.
More than 7/8 wins at SMU isn't just reviving the program, it's breaking new ground for the era. What Morris did is take arguably the worst team in CFB and returned it to where the program should be.
I think your argument applies more to the Proven Winner category, which is why I rated him low on there.
quote:
. Berts first year was 3-9, then 7-6,then 8-5. In the SEC west.
That's fine if you want to give Bret a high rating on that category. Look at how he would rank on a few of my other criteria and you'll see why he shouldn't be HC at Arkansas.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:52 am to The Sultan of Swine
Bert clearly needed to move on, I'm just saying his first 3 years are comparable to Chad's at SMU, and you see how Bert followed up those first 3. Just a gamble.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:55 am to dammitbert
Have you requested a name change to dammitchuck yet?
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:56 am to TheCheshireHog
Anyone know how the team reacted to the news?
Posted on 12/6/17 at 8:58 am to TheCheshireHog
quote:
Have you requested a name change to dammitchuck yet?
He's gonna have to blow several second half leads as stupidly as possible before he gets that distinction!
This post was edited on 12/6/17 at 8:59 am
Posted on 12/6/17 at 9:08 am to SouthernHog
quote:
This hire is making me excited again about Razorback football.
This
Posted on 12/6/17 at 9:09 am to ArmyHogs
quote:
Anyone know how the team reacted to the news?
All the tweets I saw yesterday from players were positive.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 9:18 am to TheCheshireHog
quote:
Have you requested a name change to dammitchuck yet?
Posted on 12/6/17 at 9:35 am to TheCheshireHog
quote:
All the tweets I saw yesterday from players were positive
That's good, but I guess the players wouldn't tweet stuff like "man, frick Chad Morris"
Posted on 12/6/17 at 9:54 am to dammitbert
quote:
hat to me is a more respectable turn around than what Morris has accomplished.
when people talk about ncaa bringing the hammer they usually referred to that as getting smu'd for a reason....what he did there was great and far more impressive than winning 3 games with a bunch of future NFL players.....
Posted on 12/6/17 at 10:11 am to The Sultan of Swine
Agreed on all counts, especially this one:
The folly of hiring Bielema was that we’d underestimated or outright ignored the involvement of Alvarez and the structure dynamic at Wisconsin wherein he walked into a situation readymade for him to succeed, and he had a mentor in the AD’s office who could assist him when and if the program started sliding off the rails. For reference, here are the records for Bert’s first 3 seasons in Madison:
2006: 12-1 (7-1)
2007: 9-4 (5-3)
2008: 7-6 (3-5)
Bielema also didn’t have connections to the South or southern football, didn’t have recruiting ties to the South, and wasn’t an innovative offensive-minded coach who placed an importance on speed.
Morris checks a lot of boxes that we got wrong or totally ignored with Bielema.
quote:
-Proven ability to revive a program 10. SMU was a complete dumpster fire, one of the worst teams in CFB and he made them respectable again.
The folly of hiring Bielema was that we’d underestimated or outright ignored the involvement of Alvarez and the structure dynamic at Wisconsin wherein he walked into a situation readymade for him to succeed, and he had a mentor in the AD’s office who could assist him when and if the program started sliding off the rails. For reference, here are the records for Bert’s first 3 seasons in Madison:
2006: 12-1 (7-1)
2007: 9-4 (5-3)
2008: 7-6 (3-5)
Bielema also didn’t have connections to the South or southern football, didn’t have recruiting ties to the South, and wasn’t an innovative offensive-minded coach who placed an importance on speed.
Morris checks a lot of boxes that we got wrong or totally ignored with Bielema.
This post was edited on 12/6/17 at 10:15 am
Posted on 12/6/17 at 10:35 am to Feral
I'm just excited to see this kind of offense finally make its way to the University of Arkansas.
Hopefully it will work out great.
Hopefully it will work out great.
Posted on 12/6/17 at 10:55 am to Feral
Exactly. In response to dammitbert's point that Bielema's record in his first 3 years at Arkansas looks like a revival, I would say he never go the program back to where it should be. You can say he got close and was trending in the right direction, but the liberty bowl isn't the standard here. 7 wins in a regular wins at SMU is about where their program should be right now.
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