re: Interesting Facts About Arkansas Fooball

quote:

---

The Chad Morris hire absolutely destroyed that program.

---

They were already sinking before then. His hire was proof of how far the program had fallen after the previous coach was poached from what was then a top P5 program.

The motorcycle accident was the obvious inflection point as they were fairly successful before that incident. But even that I think was coincidence.

Really what killed Arky football was the world shifting around them in directions that hurt them.

First of all was early conference realignment. They had hopes that A&M joining would have gotten them back into Texas recruiting, but not only did that not happen but A&M was successful enough from the start to push them down the SEC West pecking order. Also during this period they got stuck playing a Mizzou every year that had what is now obviously their best coach all-time. This all put Bert in a big hole.

Next was a shift in the SEC to faster offenses and less power football. Arky had been successful being an outlier with its offense, but soon Auburn and Ole Miss on top of the two aforementioned Big 12 teams were feeding Arky its own old medicine but with better recruits at the EXACT time Bert wanted to shift back to power football.

Next was the shift to ADs being more the front man for college athletics over coaches, and Arky suffered because its long-term AD was at the forefront of this shift. Instead of building funds for the AD Jeff Long was too busy giving interviews or lobbying to be on the College Football Playoff Committee.

Then came NiL which Arky which is a disaster for Arky. Their AD has made it clear they don't have donors willing to step into that fold, and that means Arky fell behind almost immediately in the NiL era with no chance to catch up.

Sure Chad sucked, but he was hired because better choices didn't want the job. This was confirmed when they had to hire Pittman afterwards because no coach with a realistic shot at a Power 5 job would go near the program- everyone could see how bad off it was.

Ironically, Arky on paper should be in a good place: they get to play Texas every year which hypes up the fans, they are in the best conference for football, the playoffs make it easier than ever to get into the post-season and NiL means the big brands around the state can theoretically pitch in. But Walton's kids went to Mizzou, and Jerry has enough problems running his Cowboys, which means there is no one to take their mantel in this new era. Hence the pivot to basketball.