A legend in Texas.

[Grunt]

Sure can't hurt recruiting.

[Paul]

Sure can't hurt recruiting.

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

Gotta disagree a bit. We don't need to stretch ourselves thin trying to recruit Georgia. Focus on the bordering States. Texas more than makes up for Georgia and it's much closer. Hopefully my opinion doesn't get overlooked since I'm not from the SWC era

[ShadowHawg]

So we will no longer be behind the Longhorns, A&M, OU, TCU, and Okie St for Texas kids?

[3of5-2]

Davy Crockett was a legend in Texas. CM is no Davy Crockett.

[NWASooner]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

You're not going to get those kids.  Not the good ones, anyway.  FL and GA are 1,000 miles away.  Texas is a bordering state that Arkansas actually plays games in.

Look at the Okie State WR's.  They're both from Texas and will play in the league immediately.  Their defense may suck but those WR's are damn good.  There is no reason at all that Oklahoma State should have better talent than Arkansas.  Period.

Morris will help tremendously with Texas recruiting.  It won't hurt matters that Baylor has imploded.

[Paul]

Gotta disagree a bit. We don't need to stretch ourselves thin trying to recruit Georgia. Focus on the bordering States. Texas more than makes up for Georgia and it's much closer. Hopefully my opinion doesn't get overlooked since I'm not from the SWC era

TX kids are to play the spread & against the spread.  That's why the Lil 12 is almost all finesse teams.  in the deep South is where you find the kind of LB's & lineman that maul people.  It's a oversimplification & a generalization but there's also a lot of truth.  As Nolan said, "that's where the slave ships stopped.  Some of our best Dlineman ever were recruited by Danny Ford out of GA & MS.     

[Paul]

You're not going to get those kids.  Not the good ones, anyway.  FL and GA are 1,000 miles away.  Texas is a bordering state that Arkansas actually plays games in.

Look at the Okie State WR's.  They're both from Texas and will play in the league immediately.  Their defense may suck but those WR's are damn good.  There is no reason at all that Oklahoma State should have better talent than Arkansas.  Period.

Morris will help tremendously with Texas recruiting.  It won't hurt matters that Baylor has imploded.

see above. 

[Qadi999]

So we will no longer be behind the Longhorns, A&M, OU, TCU, and Okie St for Texas kids?

Texas produces 300+ D1 players a year I'm sure we could sneak 5 or 6 out with no trouble.

[Hugo Bezdek]

So we will no longer be behind the Longhorns, A&M, OU, TCU, and Okie St for Texas kids?

Texas and A&M will always dominate Texas recruiting. They are the primary home state programs. OU will always have a strong presence there. There's no reason we can't overtake everyone else if we put enough resources into doing it. We've made the mistake of spreading ourselves too thin trying to recruit the whole Southeast instead of our own backyard. Sure we can get some talent here and there from FL and GA, but our focus needs to be TX, LA, and our surrounding states.

[JOKERHOG]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

Pretty sure Morris did some cruitin' over yonder at Clemson smack dab in middle of sec turitury...

[Paul]

hope so

[phadedhawg]

Seeing how much passion he's put into high school football after becoming a college coach....it swayed me from heck no to cautiously optimistic. 

[Hugo Bezdek]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

I agree we can't just recruit Texas, but when we moved to the SEC we didn't physically move. Our geography is still the same. Our borders are still the same. The states and metro areas that surround Arkansas should always be our primary focus. Sending half our recruiters to the east coast and abandoning the recruiting grounds in Texas has been a huge mistake for us. We can fill 80% of our roster from Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana and have the talent we need in the SEC.

[EastexHawg]

Davy Crockett was a legend in Texas. CM is no Davy Crockett.

Thanks for another good laugh.  They're at a premium these days.

[LumberBacks]

You're not going to get those kids.  Not the good ones, anyway.  FL and GA are 1,000 miles away.  Texas is a bordering state that Arkansas actually plays games in.

Look at the Okie State WR's.  They're both from Texas and will play in the league immediately.  Their defense may suck but those WR's are damn good.  There is no reason at all that Oklahoma State should have better talent than Arkansas.  Period.

Morris will help tremendously with Texas recruiting.  It won't hurt matters that Baylor has imploded.

^^ THIS^^

Current Arkansas roster - 11% from Texas
Current OKST roster - 41% from Texas

Have you been to Stillwater?  It has nothing on NWA.   The campus is nice and roomy, but the town is poo surrounded by pasture.  I know.  I've lived in both places/attended both schools.  Fayetteville is only 1:15 further from DFW than Stillwater.  There is no reason Arkansas can't recruit at the same level in Texas as OKST.  Gundy has made OKST relevant with innovative coaching and recruiting.  They may be at their ceiling, but OKST friends of mine go to every game - even Bedlam - knowing that they will be competitive.  There is no reason why CCM can't do the same thing at Arkansas.  Arkansas will be hard pressed to ever win the SECw with Bama/Saban, but 9-10 win season are not out of reach and most Arkansas fans would be delighted with that.

[redeye]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

Some success?  We won a national title and were a top-10 team for 2 decades, so I think that qualifies as more than "some" success.

We will need to recruit elsewhere and he's done that.  I agree that the "need to recruit Texas" mentality is pushed too much and that Bielema was criticized too much for not recruiting Texas hard enough.  But location is the biggest factor in recruiting and Texas is the nearest recruiting hotbed to Fayetteville, so it's still very important. 

[EastexHawg]

Todd Dodge won four state championships in seven years in Texas' highest classification at Southlake Carroll.  More recently, he has gone 37-5 the last three years at Austin Westlake and is currently 13-0 heading into next Saturday's quarterfinal game.

Does that qualify as legendary?

BTW, in between he became the head coach at North Texas...but was fired four years later after putting up a record of 6 wins and 37 losses.

[Boarcephus]

I think what some of you are missing is what I heard today about Morris.  He is as engrained into Texas High School Football as much as Art Briles was.   High School coaches would call Briles and tell him about players they had that were being overlooked by the big programs because they simply didn't feel like they needed to drive to some of the podunk schools to look at a player and they would steer these players to Briles because they knew  he'd take care of them.   It'll be tough to go head to head against the huge programs against the top talent in the larger metro areas until we have some success but Morris can take advantage of his connections and bring in players that might not be as well known but are ball playing sobs.  We've wanted a guy who can evaluate talent and this guy may be that guy and he'll have lots of help because football in Texas is like no other state.   

[redeye]

So we will no longer be behind the Longhorns, A&M, OU, TCU, and Okie St for Texas kids?

Maybe, but at least we'll be ahead of Missouri, Kansas, KSU and all the other states that recruit Texas better than Arkansas.  We've rarely recruited Texas better than the schools you named, but Arkansas has fallen far down on the list with Texas recruits.  After we left the SWC and the Big-12 was formed, other Big-12 schools passed us and there were probably others outside the Big-12, too.

[The NewEra]

Get three top notch players each year that would have signed with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and aTm, then add that to our recent history of 3 and that's 12 Texas players per class.  Fill the rest up with talent from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and we'll be just fine.  All within the golden area of a five hour drive radius to campus.

You're just about to find out how highly CCM is regarded in the state of Texas with a very short window remaining this year.  That will only be a taste of what's to come.

[NWASooner]

I think what some of you are missing is what I heard today about Morris.  He is as engrained into Texas High School Football as much as Art Briles was.   High School coaches would call Briles and tell him about players they had that were being overlooked by the big programs because they simply didn't feel like they needed to drive to some of the podunk schools to look at a player and they would steer these players to Briles because they knew  he'd take care of them.   It'll be tough to go head to head against the huge programs against the top talent in the larger metro areas until we have some success but Morris can take advantage of his connections and bring in players that might not be as well known but are ball playing sobs.  We've wanted a guy who can evaluate talent and this guy may be that guy and he'll have lots of help because football in Texas is like no other state.   

This.

The Texas high school coaching network is pretty tight nit and they can be as needy and sensitive as a room full of teenage girls.  If you get admitted to their club, they'll do what the post above described.  That's one of the reasons Baylor recruited so well.  (That and Briles taking a bunch of rapists who couldn't go anywhere else.)

Bert went down there and insulted them and some of the posters here are wondering why Arkansas doesn't get more kids from Texas. 

[NaturalStateReb]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

Arkansas has to be able to recruit the I-30 corridor.

[jgphillips3]

I think what some of you are missing is what I heard today about Morris.  He is as engrained into Texas High School Football as much as Art Briles was.   High School coaches would call Briles and tell him about players they had that were being overlooked by the big programs because they simply didn't feel like they needed to drive to some of the podunk schools to look at a player and they would steer these players to Briles because they knew  he'd take care of them.   It'll be tough to go head to head against the huge programs against the top talent in the larger metro areas until we have some success but Morris can take advantage of his connections and bring in players that might not be as well known but are ball playing sobs.  We've wanted a guy who can evaluate talent and this guy may be that guy and he'll have lots of help because football in Texas is like no other state.   

Outstanding point.

[Boarcephus]

Bert went down there and insulted them and some of the posters here are wondering why Arkansas doesn't get more kids from Texas. 

When he first showed up he was one pompous, tweeting sob and insulted the coaches in Texas and the style of ball they played.  They weren't about to help him out but Morris is one of them.  Great analogy about the high school girls but that's dead on. 

[phadedhawg]

When he first showed up he was one pompous, tweeting sob and insulted the coaches in Texas and the style of ball they played.  They weren't about to help him out but Morris is one of them.  Great analogy about the high school girls but that's dead on. 

Right around time of the #karma tweet, I knew we were entering dangerous waters.  At the time I whistled past it but the unease began there.

[The NewEra]

When he first showed up he was one pompous, tweeting sob and insulted the coaches in Texas and the style of ball they played.  They weren't about to help him out but Morris is one of them.  Great analogy about the high school girls but that's dead on.

When BB came here he was so full of himself.  Hopefully the humbling experience he's received makes him a better man going forward.

[okrazorback]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

There maybe a lot of good recruits in Texas, but there are lot of teams in Texas. Are they going to come to Arkansas instead of Texas.

[bjeffersonhog]

offensively Texas puts out a lot of good recruits.  Defensively it seems like Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi have produced a ton of talent in the front 7.

[The NewEra]

There maybe a lot of good recruits in Texas, but there are lot of teams in Texas. Are they going to come to Arkansas instead of Texas.

Playing in the SEC, and in particular against the West is a huge lure for those that are really talented.  It's a lure CCM said he will be using.

[elkhog]

So we will no longer be behind the Longhorns, A&M, OU, TCU, and Okie St for Texas kids?

Of course not...

[NuttinbutMediocre]

I'm sorry, but it would be ridiculous to not emphasize recruiting Texas. There is an ocean of talent there. We border the state and we have historical connections there. We bring in tons of Texas kids as students. There is no reason we can't follow an OU/OSU model and get a substantial portion of our roster from Texas.

[devildoghawg]

in Texas but we can't just recruit Texas.  That is an anachronistic view of fans who think that's our big problem because we had some success in the SWC with Texas players.  We're in the SEC now.  We must be able to recruit LA, MS, GA etc to be competitive in the SEC.   

Texas has more than enough talent to make us competitive.  Between there, Limited AR talent, and pool in Louisiana we should have zero problems.  We are also in the Florida pipeline in a limited capacity.