This is why we hired Morris

Great read

That site gave me all sorts of shite for having an ad blocker installed. Can't read it, but it looks like it's talking favorably about tChad.

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Yeah his Texas ties will help this program turn the corner.

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Yep. It would appear that JCP's primary focus was finding a football coach who could recruit the Texas area and repair the damage Bielema did with our image down there.

Of course Chad needs to start showing some major improvement in the wins but even if he gets canned after a few years he will have done a lot to restock the talent level on the team.

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That site gave me all sorts of shite for having an ad blocker installed. Can't read it, but it looks like it's talking favorably about tChad.

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Lancaster head coach Chris Gilbert has lost track of how many college coaches have walked into his office this month.

Being along I-20, a gold mine for football talent, he's used to the foot traffic. But this year "has been absolutely crazy," Gilbert said.

It's not just the quantity of college coaches that have him feeling that way, either. On Jan. 16 TCU head coach Gary Patterson and Alabama head coach Nick Saban both visited Lancaster. Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher stopped by the next day.



But recruiting battles aren't won in a day. And one-off visits have little effect on a top recruit's college choice. It's about relationships forged over time, and after coaching at Lancaster for the last eight years, Gilbert has noticed something.

"Schools are going to get a guy who can win recruiting battles in that area, they make no bones about it," Gilbert said, "and honestly you have to have some familiarity with the area to comb through the recruits and build relationships with the high school coaches."

Those long-term relationships, especially here in the Dallas-area, have resulted in recruiting success for schools that are outside of the state and are not the traditional, national powerhouses.

Brandon Huffman, a national recruiting analyst for 247Sports, said colleges are always looking for advantages when it comes to recruiting. Ties to the Dallas-area, with more than 360 student-athletes with a three-star ranking or better, are crucial.

"[The Dallas area] is producing endless amounts of talent," Huffman said. "It's imperative that you have guys ... with any type of connection there."

Arkansas has plenty of them. And it starts at the top. Head coach Chad Morris, the father of Highland Park quarterback Chandler Morris, coached 18 years of Texas high school football. He eventually spent three season as the head coach at SMU before heading to Fayetteville.

Morris said most local coaches have either coached with or against him or know someone that did.

"It's easy for them to sell who I am and knowing me and just to sell back to the players," Morris said.

It appears to have worked. Take Mansfield Legacy for example. Legacy had four of the top-23 recruits in the area, according to SportsDayHS top 100 rankings. Two of them, Enoch Jackson and Taurean Carter, signed with Arkansas in December. Safety Jalen Catalon will sign with Arkansas next week.

All three of them pointed to their relationship with Morris and assistant coach Mark Smith, a former L.D. Bell head coach, as a major factor in their decision.

"Our high school coaches in our state, our footprints in the state of Texas and the relationships we have there, it's how we're going to turn this program around," Morris said.

Like Arkansas, other schools with local ties have had recent success. San Diego State, with offensive coordinator Jeff Horton -- an Arlington native -- recruiting here, signed Flower Mound Marcus running back Justin Dinka and Arlington defensive back Kyron White, both ranked among the top 100 of this year's SportsDayHS area recruiting rankings.

Illinois has signed two of the top five area players the last two years. Last year it was Bishop Dunne defensive lineman Calvin Avery. This year it was Duncanville wide receiver Marquez Beason.

Illinois assistant coach Andrew Hayes-Stoker, who went to Arlington Lamar and played at TCU, led the recruiting of both of them. Every time he recruits the area, he said he stays at his mother's home in Arlington.

Being a former player in the area, Hayes-Stoker said he understands what each recruit is going through, allowing for clear communication. Beason said he trusted Hayes-Stoker and the rest of the Illinois coaching staff because "they kept it real" with him.

"We're all kind of cut from the same cloth," Hayes-Stoker said of the local kids he recruits. "We each sleep, eat and breathe football. We have that commonality there."

Coaches like Morris, Horton and Hayes-Stoker can draw back on a lifetime of experience. They have a reputation here and know the coaches, probably still the most important consultant in a recruit's decision, according to Huffman.

On Tuesday, Gilbert received a handwritten letter from first-year Texas Tech head coach Matt Wells. The two coaches met for the first time recently. In the letter, Wells thanked Gilbert for his time and told the Lancaster coach "you do things the right way."

"Thanks coach," Gilbert tweeted. "Classy move."

And a good start to an important recruiting relationship.

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He’s only been a head coach at one other place

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And had a 14-22 record.. Which was kind of my point.

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Isn’t the point of a new coach inheriting a shitty program to build it up? Isn’t that exactly what he did/was doing at SMU?

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I'm looking forward to 7-5 in year 3 with a couple power 5 wins.

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I'm looking forward to 7-5 in year 3 with a couple power 5 wins.

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That’s the spirit. In fact if you follow the trend we’ll be playing in a SECCG in 4 years, natty the year after. Can’t wait.

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And had a 14-22 record.. Which was kind of my point.

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Go look at Clemson's record under Dabo before and after Morris arrived.

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In before "but Morris' offense!"

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I mean you know who the current OC is? You know who he coached under? I'm sure it is all a big coincidence