which is something Mr. Steele has done well over the years, interestingly SMU makes the bounceback top 15 list. It really hurt to have read and have so much agreement that it will take big improvement for us to get to 5 wins. I’m not sure we have any character that separates us from our more bully brethern of the SEC such as speed, ingenuity or power. Way back in our glories of the 60’s and 70’s we were quick and scrappy and had an uderdog motivational edge.
Can’t read it… Paywalled.
Be interesting to see his group from last year…I got the ole mag around here somewhere if he puts that in it.
Yeah he’s right more than he’s wrong, which could very well be 53%-47% 
It will take improvement to get to five wins. I think that may be the max this season.
The key is improvement and hope.
Agree, but we’re in a day where hope is just not enough. Wish the times were 7 seasons ago with Morris; worried it’s too late, already.
I guess I just don’t see why it would be too late.
The past is the past. Can’t do anything about it.
This coaching staff just has to push the program forward in terms of talent.
I believe they have done that in the short time here. Obviously a lot more to do, but it’s a start.
Doom, Doom, Doom… :shock:
It is not easy to make a leap when you are in the cellar in the SEC West, the strongest division in NCAA football.
Common sense says we beat all 4 of the cream puff non-conference teams and one SEC team. Maybe we will scratch out an SEC win, maybe not.
This year will tell us more about whether or not Coach Morris and his staff can coach in this league. Last year was ugly on game day. I want to see some improvement…I want to see a team that is organized, motivated and competitive…Let’s do a great job in coaching what little talent we do have. Let’s steal a game or two like any excellent coach will do.
Agree 100%. I hope Coach Morris is the next hot coach in CFB. Last year proved he is not a miracle worker.
Looking at pure numbers, as Phil Steele does, I don’t know why we are surprised he didn’t pick us as one of the most improved teams this year:
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A new head coach with 3 years’ experience in a non-power 5 conference and 1 year power 5 experience with a 16-32 record, and a conference record of 8-24.
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A team coming off its worst record in its 100+ year history under the new coach.
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A recruiting class coming in ranked 10th in its conference and last or next to last in it’s division.
If you didn’t know that was Arkansas, would you expect great improvement from this team this year?
As fans, we all “hope” that CCM proves to be a great hire. But face it, the administration took a flyer on him based primarily on recruiting possibilities and the hope that he proves to be a great head coach.
That’s it. There’s no objective reason we should expect more than 4 wins. I’d like to think we’ll enough improved that we can win a couple of games that we were almost able to pull off last year. (Of the SEC games, I only recall Ole Miss & A&M as being close enough that we could have won.) However, I’m not sure we will. We may have to measure improvement this year by staying closer longer. The two games we should have the best chance to win are OM & MSU. Unfortunately, OM is at Oxford. MSU beat us badly last year, but I understand they lost some key players from last year’s team & at least we have them in Fayetteville.
I hope for 6 wins. Would be thrilled to get 6 this year. Mainly though, I want us to win at least the 4 NC games & at least one SEC game & be competitive in the others. (By “competitive” against Alabama, we might just need to hope we’re within 10 points going into the 4th qtr.)
The university also took a flyer on CM because we got played like a fiddle by Saint Gus.
Indeed we did. The only thing good about getting played like that is it seems to have finally quieted the Gus cult that had been trying to get him here as HC since 2006.
I don’t see us jumping out of the cellar with CCM, I think it will be more like a slow crawl, which is fine by me and hopefully we crawl all the way to the top. I’m with Morris until he proves he can’t get it done and he has not proved that he can or can’t yet, but time will tell. WPS
If Gus gets fired this year (very possible), you can bet his cult will be trying to get him to UA.
Gus and his cult are major reasons why we are where we are today in football. It started when they sabotaged the program over a decade ago.
And that perception is exactly why I don’t want Gus. There is too much division in the Arkansas fan base about him. Heck, had he been hired, I probably would have quit going to the radio show at the Catfish Hole.
Gus would have been a good hire when we hired Bielema, but Jeff Long made a somewhat odd choice and it cost Jeff his job. I was in the hire Gus camp for years because the guy is a heckuva coach and would have probably had Arkansas in much better shape than it is today. However, after he used us in 2017, and we ended up hiring Chad Morris…Gus is not welcome here by me, anyway. The Gus deal is over…we can move on. He has a bunch of money and has had a nice coaching career. When he wanted us, we didn’t want him…when we wanted him, he didn’t want us. It just didn’t work out…too bad.
In retrospect, almost any hire would have been better than Bielema. Even Gus. Ironically, so many of our troubles ending with the firing of HDN & replacing him with BP. Petrino brought us short term glory that proved we can indeed be a player on the national stage, but his lack of character put us in the awful position of having to replace him at the worst time of year with an interim coach. Almost any interim would have been better, but in hindsight, I’m not sure an interim was a good idea. That whole staff knew they were gone & as a result, no one cared about that season. Players could run free. CBB looked good on paper, but for whatever reason, couldn’t begin to match his results at Wisc. The result: nearly a decade of the worst football in UA history. It won’t get much better this year. Maybe in 2020 we’ll be an 8+ win team.
Changing systems was a self induced death penalty but I am excited to be moving forward now.
Alvarez built the Wisconsin program. Perhaps we should have hired CBBs’ boss.
That said, we’re still struggling with CBBs legacy. It’s crazy, but I don’t recall a time when we had five no name starters on the OL. I’m hopeful that a couple might build some national name recognition and accolades, but it’s likely not gonna happen this season.
I’m hopeful that we see some apparent improvement this season, even if we don’t see a great win.