"We will become a Model program for all others to follow"...

[MuskogeeHogFan]

I can't believe I was such hater of this man on the Coaching search board. This guy is the next generation!

I heard him make that comment just like I heard him say "the best DC in college football" is coming to Arkansas.

Coaches say a lot of very positive things on the day that they are announced as the new HC. That is what they are supposed to do. I take a great deal of this with a grain of salt for that very reason. I wish they wouldn't step out and make comments like that because those things have a way of coming back to haunt them later, whether fairly or unfairly.

Read between the lines of what he says. "Hammer down" is certainly something within his control, with regard to the pace that he and his staffs works, recruiting, his expectations for the team in preparation in both the off season and in-season and in terms of the offensive philosophy. That I can believe.

"Championships, best DC in college football, a program that will be a model for all others to follow", well, we will see. That's a lot to believe and digest when we haven't even had our first practice under a new regime. I'm not saying that they can't do it, I'm just saying, "we will see". It is far easier to say those things when you are introduced than to actually make those things materialize.

I hope he can make it all happen. I'll be pulling for him to make it all happen just as he said he would. But for now, while it all sounds great, it is wait and see time.

[Con el Cerdos]

I think everyone needs to pump the brakes. I can understand excitement about a new hire, but don't let the excitement build expectations that are most likely unattainable. Since joining the SEC even our best coaches are just barely over .500. Give the guy some time and understand what he is up against. All coaches talk about championships. Very few are in a position to win them.

Most won't like your message, but it's the most sane I've read since Morris was hired.

I love the players we have, mostly because they chose to be Razorbacks.  Fact is we just don't have the numbers of difference makers needed to make a run at a championship.  It will take a while, if it ever happens.

[hog911]

glad to see you are a bigger man then most on HV and can admit when one was wrong +1's all day . I was never a Norvell guy, I wanted Venables but also really like Morris so i was happy. Maybe my dream will come true and we still get Venables in a AHC/DC role. I mean it is getting to look a lot like Christmas

if he gets a home run  DC hire I'll change my tune as well!

[MuskogeeHogFan]

if he gets a home run  DC hire I'll change my tune as well!

"Best DC in college football" is a variable term and depends upon the interpretation of the person who says that. Most folks seem to be taking that as a finite message, that it has to be Venables. He and Bud Foster are extreme long shots. If I were most Hog fans, I wouldn't set my sights so high. It would great to get either of them, but I think we are more likely to wind up with someone else.

[247Hog]

Great post! I was a hater as well when I heard the hire. Never got past his 14-22 record at SMU. Now that I've watched highlights of SMU offense and heard the guy speak, I can tell 100% this guy is a winner. He is a big time competitor that is going to give it everything he has got not to fail here. We made a step in the right direction with this hire.

Same. I listened to others and looked at W-L only. Believe i am and will be shown i was wrong after 2 seasons.

[247Hog]

if he gets a home run  DC hire I'll change my tune as well!

I said we needed a home run hire for HC to make a difference here. How many people claimed CM was a home run hire? I no longer look at it as we need this huge splash hire for DC. Home run hire can be a coach that develops, personality, player relations, fan relations. etc... one thing ive started to realize, it's not all about the most popular name out there to make it a home run.

[Mjs84]

Not really, and here's why...
Whenever you overreact to a situation you spark the next guy, who sparks two more guys, and so on, and so on... Then it takes 48 hours for the cooling off process to take hold and get to the meat of the subject. If you do it here, you do it at work. People need to reign it in and grow up.

Depends on the context.  A bad loss is understandable.  A coaching hire, people need to wait and see.  If you realize we actually gave JLS a chance, then you would know how crazy it is to bash CCM upon hearing the news.  Thinking that everybody is going to stop being emotional just because you say it's not ok , is nearly as irrational as the offense itself.  I understand this is a message board for people to act crazy.  I won't lie, I kind of enjoy it.

[urkillnmesmalls]

I heard him make that comment just like I heard him say "the best DC in college football" is coming to Arkansas.

Coaches say a lot of very positive things on the day that they are announced as the new HC. That is what they are supposed to do. I take a great deal of this with a grain of salt for that very reason. I wish they wouldn't step out and make comments like that because those things have a way of coming back to haunt them later, whether fairly or unfairly.

Read between the lines of what he says. "Hammer down" is certainly something within his control, with regard to the pace that he and his staffs works, recruiting, his expectations for the team in preparation in both the off season and in-season and in terms of the offensive philosophy. That I can believe.

"Championships, best DC in college football, a program that will be a model for all others to follow", well, we will see. That's a lot to believe and digest when we haven't even had our first practice under a new regime. I'm not saying that they can't do it, I'm just saying, "we will see". It is far easier to say those things when you are introduced than to actually make those things materialize.

I hope he can make it all happen. I'll be pulling for him to make it all happen just as he said he would. But for now, while it all sounds great, it is wait and see time.

This.  All of that sounds great, but unless the existing players on the roster were running slow on purpose the past few seasons, color me not convinced that we're going to see dramatic improvement immediately.  I think developing the passing game to include more timing routes will help with our lack of speed and separation, but his offense is going to be predicated on speed...and right now, we don't have an abundance of it. 

And defensively...we will have some returners, but we're going to lose some key cogs as well.  Hopefully we go back to the 4-3, and find a way to play a little more aggressive with maybe a single safety, and dictate rather than being reactive.  We've seen bend but don't break and no pressure...and that's not a good recipe. 

[Big_Red_1]

I said this on October 7th, 2017 ...
"Are there any high school teams left that run an I formation offense? Seems like this throw back offensive scheme would be totally foreign to kids today.

In my worthless opinion only, Arkansas' future is a spread type offense with a dual threat QB ... it's the future for all programs who can't recruit like Bama, Ohio State, Clemson, et al...the big 5 star mugs that are already NFL talent are going to those winning programs, and very few are opting for anywhere else. What's left in the recruiting talent pool are kids who most likely have run some sort of spread throughout junior and senior high, are somewhat smaller, but have speed and football IQ, and are very familiar with the schemes typical of spread offense theory ... and there's a ton of them to recruit. They don't, however, have any desire to play for a plodding, monotonous, blocking scheme offense that they've either never played themselves, nor played against with any regularity. Sure, the spread O may not beat the Bamas and Clemsons of the football world...but I'd trade every 300lb. goon on the team and a loss or two every year to the NFL minor leagues if it meant the real possibility of either winning the other 10, or at least losing by the outcome of a single play or two, not by being humiliated for half the game.

Defensive players are another beast entirely - most defensive kids out of high school seem to be familiar with the "bend, don't break" mentality that comes with playing on a team with a spread offense. Get just enough stops to make the difference. Most of those kids are somewhat smaller as well, but not always; what they do typically have is speed. Unfortunately, they seem more inclined to want to play for teams that have a fast paced, head hunter style defense that blitzes a lot, floods the run lanes, and plays bump and run man on the corners. The old standard stand around, run gap zone D is not what they're typically used to, and not what kids like to play.

Future coaches could have increased success at Arkansas if some of these non-traditional styles were considered...Bobby Petrino showed us just a tiny sliver of the offensive possibilities, he just neglected defensive recruiting in the process. Find a head coach that is talented enough to recruit both sides of the ball, or hire competent assistants to get the job done, and you might have something here. It may not win championships, but good lord it has to produce better than what we've experienced the last 5 years."

Well ... I got what I asked for ... I guess we'll see, won't we.

A good read.  Thanks!!

[12247]

These thread titles are one of the problems we have on Hogville.  Getting carried away and writing checks we simply cannot cash.

If we are durn lucky, maybe, just maybe we will develop a model that finally works for us.  Being a model for all others to follow is just dumb, along the lines of BBF, best friends forever when you just met the person waiting for popcorn at the movies.

Even if our new HC said that, its still dumb.  Show by doing, not saying on things like that.

[Science Fiction Greg]

The thread is about the quote.  The title of thread is fine.  It even has quotation marks to help understand this.

[Pig in the Pokey]

I say aim for the stars.

Like Venables, Foster, Leavitt.

[Hogtimes]

I always thought Morris was the best choice among those often mentioned.  However, slogans and talk is cheap.    Bielema said all the right things when he was hired and everybody was all fired up.   It is best to not get carried away by the talk.... and wait and see the results on the field.

Saying we will become a model program is just bragging  until you actually do it.....at least that is what Dizzy said.

[RazorbackDJT]

CM  will have to get his own players.  He's basically taking over a big10 team

[ballz2thewall]

I can't either.  After listening to him, I wish football season could start today.

i share your enthusiasm. i'm 54 and tossing caution to the wind. i'll batten down if needed. till then, i'm ready.

[Inhogswetrust]

That's fine but there is definitely a big time homer faction pushing a loud agenda. It's like what I read what someone else said a few days ago "you guys would worship a head of lettuce as the Hogs head coach if that was what was introduced." This is true.

For me, Morris was was way down the list as far as who I think we should've hired...but at the end of the day Jeff Long and Bret Bielema aren't here anymore to continue sinking the program into the abyss so everything else is gravy. I've turned cautiously optimistic simply because I think we will have a team faster and in better shape, with a philosophy better suited for our program to win more games vs whatever the hell Bielema was doing. Also I'm interested to see if his recruiting can change our (to now) permanent conference cellar dweller status. A lot of hype there and I'm in wait and see mode to see if any of it is true. "Texas high school coaching legend"

This guy will have a lot shorter of a leash than Bielema did. He will get 2 years max to win 8 or more games or the fans will revolt, and you will see an ending attendance wise like this year.

It doesn't matter who you thought would be a good hire or who I though would be a good hire they hired who they though would be a good hire. Besides you and I didn't interview or vet any of them. They had a lot more information to go on than we do. Still hiring anyone is just short of rolling the dice. He'll get more than two years as well from reasonable fans as long as he doesn't completely have the team fall apart over two years.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

i share your enthusiasm. i'm 54 and tossing caution to the wind. i'll batten down if needed. till then, i'm ready.

Lots of folks think that this is a total rebuild. I don't agree. Most of these kids played in a more wide open brand of offensive football before they came to Arkansas. This will be like a refresher, a blast from the past for most of them, even the O-Line.

The biggest question right now is the DC hire and there is already a couple of threads devoted to that topic.

I'm not sure that we will become a model program for all others to follow, but if we can do enough to just be very competitive in every game and not leave 2 or 3 on the field each year, I'll be very happy.

[Bacons Rebellion]

I wish the 'M' weren't capitalized in the thread title, because every time I see it on the main board, my mind wanders to what a Model program could mean.

   "Every minute that we lose will cost us great losses later that we will not be able to afford." -- Field Marshal Walter Model.

   "I don't want my grandchildren to go through what I went through." -- Art Model.

[Al Boarland]

Lots of folks think that this is a total rebuild. I don't agree. Most of these kids played in a more wide open brand of offensive football before they came to Arkansas. This will be like a refresher, a blast from the past for most of them, even the O-Line.

The biggest question right now is the DC hire and there is already a couple of threads devoted to that topic.

I'm not sure that we will become a model program for all others to follow, but if we can do enough to just be very competitive in every game and not leave 2 or 3 on the field each year, I'll be very happy.

Not all spread systems are the same.  This is going to take time along with the ability to bring in talent.  CCM will only go as far as he is able to elevate the recruiting to the UofA.

[Bacons Rebellion]

Not all spread systems are the same.  This is going to take time along with the ability to bring in talent.  CCM will only go as far as he is able to elevate the recruiting to the UofA.

A lot of folks have mentioned it since (including CCM) but for next season, I hope his high school background helps -- the theory that in HS you have to learn to be able to modify your scheme to fit your players and stubbornly insist they be the type of players you want them to be.

I want CBB to have some first year success -- that really helped Holtz and Nutt. Bielema was always haunted (justifiably)  by 3-9, 0-8. Crowe was never going to recover from his first year, either.

[Augustus]

I can't agree with this. CBB interacted with fans, was generally a pleasant guy and was one of the best coaches with social media.

I think the hype is just moving quickly because he said he's going to pop the clutch. He's certainly a very good coach and will get the Hogs going much quicker.

Huh? Bielema was notorious for blocking fans and media alike... even if hogs fan joined a thread to defend someone else criticizing him, he would block the entire bunch

And his wife was just as bad

[Hogtimes]

I heard him make that comment just like I heard him say "the best DC in college football" is coming to Arkansas.

Coaches say a lot of very positive things on the day that they are announced as the new HC. That is what they are supposed to do. I take a great deal of this with a grain of salt for that very reason. I wish they wouldn't step out and make comments like that because those things have a way of coming back to haunt them later, whether fairly or unfairly.

Read between the lines of what he says. "Hammer down" is certainly something within his control, with regard to the pace that he and his staffs works, recruiting, his expectations for the team in preparation in both the off season and in-season and in terms of the offensive philosophy. That I can believe.

"Championships, best DC in college football, a program that will be a model for all others to follow", well, we will see. That's a lot to believe and digest when we haven't even had our first practice under a new regime. I'm not saying that they can't do it, I'm just saying, "we will see". It is far easier to say those things when you are introduced than to actually make those things materialize.

I hope he can make it all happen. I'll be pulling for him to make it all happen just as he said he would. But for now, while it all sounds great, it is wait and see time.

I agree....finally a sane post.  So many Arkansas fans amaze me in that they get so carried away with any indication of hope and likewise they crash and burn when things do not meet their excessive expectations.   

[old_school_hawg]

I heard him make that comment just like I heard him say "the best DC in college football" is coming to Arkansas.

Coaches say a lot of very positive things on the day that they are announced as the new HC. That is what they are supposed to do. I take a great deal of this with a grain of salt for that very reason. I wish they wouldn't step out and make comments like that because those things have a way of coming back to haunt them later, whether fairly or unfairly.

Read between the lines of what he says. "Hammer down" is certainly something within his control, with regard to the pace that he and his staffs works, recruiting, his expectations for the team in preparation in both the off season and in-season and in terms of the offensive philosophy. That I can believe.

"Championships, best DC in college football, a program that will be a model for all others to follow", well, we will see. That's a lot to believe and digest when we haven't even had our first practice under a new regime. I'm not saying that they can't do it, I'm just saying, "we will see". It is far easier to say those things when you are introduced than to actually make those things materialize.

I hope he can make it all happen. I'll be pulling for him to make it all happen just as he said he would. But for now, while it all sounds great, it is wait and see time.

Well said, and the prudent and intelligent viewpoint. If more of us deployed this thinking, there would be less disappointment and more patience. Coach was laying his vision out, and it's important to understand that he has to "believe to achieve" but that doesn't mean we just follow like sheep. Proceed with caution and hope for the best!