New Arkansas head football coach Chad Morris almost quoted one of the most memorable lines of the old comic strip, "Pogo," Tuesday while addressing the Razorbacks' portion of the Southeastern Conference's football media days 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 Tuesday in Atlanta. Morris responded when asked which team he considers as Arkansas' biggest rival in the conference
"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."
Morris said fans in different sections of the state may consider different teams to be the main rival. He said he wants the biggest rival to be whoever the Hogs play next, starting with the Sept. 1 season opener against Eastern Illinois at Donald W. 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, are not on the radar to be projected as anyone's chief rival in 2018. The team is coming off of a 4-8 season to end Bret Bielema's tenure with Arkansas. His time in Fayetteville first plunged irrevocably off the rails at the end of the 2016 season when Arkansas lost halftime leads of 24-7 and 24-0 in losses at Missouri and to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl, respectively.
Preseason prognosticators put the Hogs to wallow at or near the bottom of the SEC West.
"As the way I looked at it, nobody's played a snap yet," Morris said. "There's a lot to prove."
And if any team should feel something to prove it's the players returning from 2017 in Bielema's 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, 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."
Sports on 07/18/2018