understands (most do) how devoid of talent this team is. He’s not going to do it overnight but I for one believe in Morris and believe that he will have us back to respectable, then hopefully better in the not too distant future. For those thinking otherwise, what are the options at this point? We are very likely going to get creamed in SEC play and they are going to need as much support as fans can muster. Otherwise, go become fans of another team.
And BTW, this appeared to be a pretty good team that beat the Hogs today
It is a very good G5 team. A lot better than Colorado State who is terrible like us.
It is not the fact we lost to North Texas…it is how we looked. Unprepared with a poor game plan. Whatever happened to good defense and a kicking game…keeping it close until the 4th quarter and trying to pull out a win. Missed tackles, getting beat deep, not tackling a punt returner, 4 interceptions and less then stellar play calling. It was a comedy of errors. I am shocked by how poorly coached we appear to be.
Why are we not trying to establish a rushing attack, so we can then throw the ball? We threw it 30 times the first half. Several of them to the Mean Green. Several more should have been intercepted. I know we lack talent, but we aren’t playing smart, competitive football. It appears we are trying to run Morris ’ offense when we really are not capable of doing it. Our poor defense is on the field too much. We can’t drive the ball down the field and keep our defense off the field.
This Auburn game should be interesting. They will try to pound us after losing to LSU. I see this getting really ugly… like losing by 60-70 points if Gus doesn’t have some mercy on us. Kind of like Ole Miss getting skunked by Alabama. Bama could have scored 100 on Ole Miss, but Saban sat on the ball the entire 2nd half. I don’t see Gus doing that. That scoreboard is gonna look like a Vegas slot machine spinning…
Our only hope is Gus’ friendship with Chad. He might at least play the 4th string once he’s up by 40-plus
We tried to establish the run early, but to put it bluntly, their front seven kicked our OL’s butts up between their shoulder blades.
Especially when you give them 31 points of turnovers
not this year, and probably not next year. this is going to be a real test of patience. and thats if we have the right coach.
its not losing as someone said, its the way we looked. we looked unprepared, not coached in all three areas. offense, defense and special teams.
when we add the 10th coach, i hope it is a special teams coordinator. its apparent we need one.
We all understand that when you change coaches, it takes a couple of years for him to make his system work. But I don’t agree with all the excuses about lack of talent. CBP walked in with less talent than this team and CBB walked into worse after the JLS year. While both coaches had tough first years, at least we could see where it was going and the games were competitive. So far, I do not see where this team is going or getting better or making progress. I also argue that the talent may be down, but not so far down that we can’t compete with the two teams we just lost to. Yesterday was the most embarrassing loss in my lifetime as a Razorback Alumnus and fan. It was worse than Citadel. I can accept a blow out loss to Bama or Auburn, but North Texas?
I am still rooting for this coach and this team. I just don’t know where they are going in the future. I want this coach to show me progress and give me a reason to believe like you do.
Bielema walked in to less talent - really?
Destrich Wise - nobody close
Trey Flowers - nobody close
Tevin Mitchell - Pulley comparable
Brandon Allen - Nobody close and most important position on field
Jonathan Williams - Nobody close IMO
Darius Philon Nobody close
Travis Swanson Nobody close
Javontee Herndon Better than our older receivers
Chris Smith Nobody close
Robert Thomas Better than our interior players now
Rohan Gaines Not great but far better than Ramirez
I know Bielema inherited a chaotic situation from Smith, but from a sheer talent standpoint that roster was decidedly better top to bottom.
PS This does not include players signed by Bielema - only returning Petrino signees.
I uh…no comment.
Well, most of those players were not well respected as elite talent until Bielema was finished with them. According to this link, only Swanson, Smith, and Hocker were on the preseason 3 deep All SEC teams.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-footba … on-clowney
This year’s team has 4 players listed on the All SEC 3 deep. Froholdt, Wallace, Ramires, and Harris. Agim and Greenlaw were not on it despite the fact we all think those guys have talent and big potential.
Not trying to argue with you, we could go on forever comparing player for player. To keep from arguing, let’s just say it is about even. On top of that, I want to be clear, I like the current coach and everything up to the last two weeks. I am not one calling for him to be fired right now. I am just making the point that the situation he inherited was not so much worse than what others dealt with when they came to Arkansas. The last two games have me disappointed to the point that I am starting to have doubt. To remove that doubt, I need to see some progress and reason to believe that the current staff can turn it around.
If someone doesn’t have doubt at this point about EVERYTHING Razorback football related they are not being honest with themselves.
The road back to being an average SEC team is fraught with peril and there is a fair chance, perhaps a good chance, Arkansas will continue as a perennial cellar dweller for years.
That’s not so much a reflection of Morris’ ability , but rather how deep the hole is and how far ahead the competition is.
The prospect of a program “ death spiral” is real and in reality we may already be in it.
Time will tell.
Very good, well thought ought post, especially the first paragraph. No Razorback fan could have watched our last 90 minutes of football and not have great concerns. It’s not that we lost, but how “lost we looked” while losing to teams with inferior talent.
There was another post comparing our situation to UCLA’s. They, however have a better basis for hope, because their head coach has won championships at the Power 5 level. Our hope going forward has to based on the premise that we think Morris can dig us out of this hole. He’s never demonstrated that he is able to do that at the Power 5 level.
I certainly hope CCM can turn this season around because he’s our coach and I will always support our Razorback football team. However, after watching these last 2 games, I have more worry than hope.