Welcome different.

[Michael D Huff AIA]

http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/chad-morris-first-team-meeting/

If anybody has been following my posts and responses during the coaching search and since Morris' hire it is easy to tell where my opinion falls about the new coaching hire.

I didn't like it.

I backed up my feelings with stats about how terrible the SMU defense was last year (#120), and about how much defense is played in that league as a whole (worst defense in any conference in D1).  As a rule, I generally let things that are quantifiable steer my opinions more so than things that are based on feelings. 

Feeling:  "My kid is a great baseball player". 
Stats: ".125 BA  .780 SLG  0HR  .750 Fielding Pct.." 
Judgement:  He isn't really a great baseball player.

He may be a great "kid", he may be a great leader off the field, he may be great on the debate team, but a great baseball player he isn't.  There are other ways to be great.

I just watched the first team meeting video with Coach Morris.  This is why I attached the link at the beginning of the message.  In that 7 1/2 minute video I heard Coach Morris talk about many things, but those many things align with what I believe, and not necessarily about football, many using the same words I use. 

- Are you a spender or an investor?  Spenders want something for free.  Investors want to be on the grind.
- There's a 'how' and a 'why'.  I believe these things in all phases of my personal and professional lives.
-  Football is their work.  It is a family.  I believe that the people I work with are my family.
-  "Some people say 'why', I say 'why not'".
-  We have one standard in this program and that is 'best'.
-  Get your education, be active in the community, grow spiritually, play football.  Be well rounded in your life.
-  He's got a degree in Mathematics and a minor in Statistics..."I like to think outside the box."
-  'We are going to have the best defensive coordinator in all of college football in here.'

I'm sitting here at my desk and for the first time during this whole process I got excited.  He is certainly a different guy, and for a different sort of school in a different sort of place in the country, so I say 'why not'. 

Welcome different. 

So I have.  I have come around.  Old dogs can learn new tricks.  I have embraced the new, regardless of what his record and his statistics say.  He's our guy now, and his philosophy seems to be one that I believe in, too.  I know the man more so than the coach at this point, and I have to say that I like what I see.

Now go get that DC.