By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - Though not in the exact words, new Arkansas coach Chad Morris virtually quoted the most memorable quote of the old comic strip “Pogo” while addressing the Razorbacks’ portion of SEC Football Media Days Tuesday in Atlanta.
“We have met the enemy and he is us,” Pogo the Possum said in the quote used so often since and revived by Morris when asked whom does he consider to be Arkansas’ biggest rival in the SEC.
“Right now, I would say our biggest rival is the Arkansas Razorbacks,” Morris said “And that’s been my mindset pushing forward each and every day. We talk about the team right now that is capable of defeating us are ourselves. And it’s our actions and how we approach each and every day, and it’s a choice. I may sound like I’m giving coach speak, but this is truly how we live and how we operate and how we build this program is being the best we can be.”
As for whom the Arkansas fans consider the biggest rival, Morris said it can depend on what section of the state you are in, but said he wants the biggest rival to be whoever the Hogs play next starting with the Sept. 1 season opener against Eastern Illinois at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
“I know we got a rivalry coming up on the very first game of the year that we better be focused first and foremost on and be ready to play,” Morris said. “So we’ll get to those. I’m sure I’ll continue to hear more and more. As I travel the state, everybody has their own rival. And each tells me, ‘If you’ll just beat this team, this is who we’ll rival with.’ And I said, ‘Wait a minute, I thought that’s who we rival with. If you beat this, a lot of sins will be forgiven if you do this for us.’ Hey, look, let’s just focus on being the best we can be one day at a time.”
Nationally and even regionally, it seems the Razorbacks, coming off the 4-8 season ending the Bret Bielema regime that first plunged irrevocably off the rails closing the 2016 season losing 24-7 and 24-0 halftime leads in losses at Missouri and to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl, aren’t on the radar to be projected as anyone’s chief rival.
Preseason prognosticators put the Hogs to wallow at or near the bottom of the SEC West.
“Nobody is going to put anymore higher expectations on this program than I am,” Morris said.
“Whether we’re picked to finish first or finish last is irrelevant at this point in time. As the way I looked at it, nobody’s played a snap yet. There’s a lot to prove.”
And if any team should feel something to prove, it’s the players returning from 2017 in Morris’ view.
“One thing, as I shared with our players, because we have, we’ve heard it, and our players have heard it,” Morris said. “You can’t help but not to hear it. It’s how hungry is this football team going to be because of it? And we got a lot of returning starters, a lot of returning lettermen, that experienced the season that they had last year. And I’ve said it before and 4-8 is not acceptable. It’s not acceptable whoever coach is regardless of that. So these young men have had to feel that. They’ve had to have that bitter taste in their mouth. It’s something that they’ve worked extremely hard about. So those that pick, they don’t understand what’s happening inside that locker room and the development of these young men. And that is what excites me.”
Morris said the players have been challenged by the staff and especially this summer by strength coach Trumain Carroll, who accompanied Morris in December from SMU where Morris had head coached since 2015 while the coaches also try and recruit for the future.
“It’s been 223 days since we started, and since we got to Fayetteville, since the plane landed, and a lot of things has happened between then and now,” Morris said. “And there’s a lot of similarities from some of my previous stops as we build this program moving forward and taking on the blueprint to turn this program around into a championship caliber team. I’ve been extremely impressed with Trumain Carroll, our strength coach, and his staff and what they’ve done in the 223 days that we have been there and transforming our players to where we are at this point this time today.”