A player's father on what his son had to say about morris

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I tried to be a fan if the hire.  I, like many of us, was hoping for something to bring energy to the program.  I only spoke with Morris twice.  My son met him, and came over for dinner and told me that he just had a bad feeling about him.  He told me that Morris seemed to be all talk and no substance.  I told him that he should buy in and give it some time.  He and his teammates were still upset about how the Bielema firing went down.  He spent 2 months in Morris’  program.  All the while I was on Hogville telling everyone to be patient, it would Morris take a couple of years.  After 2 months in the offseason, my son told me that he was adding an extra class a and going to finish his bachelors in 3 years and move on from football.  He and I went round and round.  I told him that he was going to regret leaving a program that he’d dreamed of being part of since he first played football.  Then he stared telling me details about some things in the program.  The straw that broke the camels back for me was what they wanted to do with my son’s position group.  He had been told by Pittman when he was a freshman that he was too small and it would take him 3 years in the weight room to get to the size he needed to be.  Pittman wanted him at 290-295.  He was at 292.  He was told that he, and all the current lineman, needed to drop 25lbs to be more mobile.  I told him that small lineman won’t work in the SEC.  He agreed.  He then told me that he just didn’t think the staff understood the level of competition in the SEC .  He told me he hated to walk away, but “I just can’t play for that coach”.  And so he walked away with two years of eligibility left.  When the 2018 season was about to start, I asked him how he was handling not being part of the team and how did he think they’ll do.  I tried to lighten the mood and joked with him that I thought they were a 4-5 win team in 2018, but Hogville thinks he’ll win 8!  He didn’t feel like joking and prophetically replied to me  “3 years down the road, he’ll be fired before he’s won a total of 8 games. He’s not an SEC coach”.  Again I tried to tell my son he was just upset because he was too close to the situation to remain objective.  He replied, “just wait and watch”.  As the season went on, he was right.  I tried to like Morris.  As I’ve posted, I support the program and that includes whoever’s name is on the door that says Head Coach, but Morris lost me.  From what I’ve heard from media members I’ve spoken to, current and former players, people that work in the building that I still have some contact with, Morris was all about Chad Morris.  He was a good catch phrase or sound bite, he wasn’t a good coach or leader.  So I’ll say this, I wasn’t against the hire, but the more information I received, my opinion changed.  I would never post any of this if he was still the head coach, but he’s gone and I’ve sat on this for 18 months.  I guess the long reply is like a therapy session for me! 

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