Hog Fans Now Realize They Could Have Done Worse

In 2017, the Razorbacks hired Chad Morris which looked bad until Tennessee said "hold my beer"

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas fans just thought it couldn't have been worse hiring Chad Morris.

Tennessee just kinda said, "hold my beer a second," and proceeded to get Jeremy Pruitt.

No need at this point to keep running the bus over Morris, but a lot of Vols fans would take a 4-20 record over two seasons without a win in the SEC instead of what's coming.

Jeremy Pruitt-Tennessee
Former Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt on the sidelines during a game in the 2020 season, his last for the Vols. (UT Athletics)

Pruitt won at nearly a .500 clip, but shattered the Tennessee football program into a thousand pieces.

Pat Forde at SI.com pretty much summed it up with a question for Vols fans:

"How does it feel, nearly five years later, to know that you greased the skids for what now definitively can be called the worst football hire of the 21st century in the Southeastern Conference? At least Chad Morris just lost; he didn’t leave Arkansas facing major sanctions, too."

You can play the what-if game of hypothetical music chairs all you want, but Morris left some pretty good young players the Razorbacks are still depending on for this season that has pretty high expectations.

He just couldn't manage them.

Chad Morris
Former Arkansas coach Chad Morris yelling at somebody during another Razorbacks' loss in 2019 just before he was fired. (Ted McClenning / allHOGS Images)

And he didn't blow up the program in getting them here. Sam Pittman didn't inherit an empty building when he was hired in 2019 but everybody needed an attitude adjustment.

It appears he accomplished that in just two seasons and his first season was a free pass, in my opinion.

Considering everything going on during that season, any first-year coach gets a pass from this corner.

Pittman doesn't have to deal with the NCAA waiting on him at the office every day. Pruitt doesn't, either, because he got kicked to the curb without supper.

It's harder to put things back together, though, when you're probably looking at some sort of NCAA sanctions from the charges last week since Sports Illustrated reported the Vols won't even challenge.

Pittman has the Hogs headed in a positive direction.

The Vols don't really even know the obstacles they'll face yet.

Arkansas Divider

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Arkansas Divider

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Andy Hodges
ANDY HODGES

Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi.