It's been nearly six years since the most infamous person in Arkansas football history led the Razorback's football team onto the field. Chad Morris brought an Arkansas football program that had contended for a national championship only six years prior to his arrival to its knees and made it the laughingstock of the SEC. The effects of his two-year tenure are still being felt.
So, it's no wonder CBS Sports agrees with Arkansas fans: Chad Morris is the worst college football hire in the last decade.
CBS names Chad Morris as the worst HC hire in the last decade
Writer Will Backus created a list of the 15 worst head coaching hires of the last 10 years, naming the former Arkansas HC as the worst. With a 4-18 record with two FBS wins and zero SEC victories, Backus wrote that Morris was "clearly overmatched at Arkansas." Overmatched may be an understatement. He was also the coach for one of the most embarrassing moments in Arkansas football history.
September 15, 2018: North Texas scores a TD on a 90-yard fake fair catch punt return during a 44-17 win at Arkansas. pic.twitter.com/BFwLRwtLwN
— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) September 15, 2022
But what really makes it a bad hire was the writing was on the wall before he ever stepped foot in Fayetteville. As a head coach, Morris had only one winning season as a head coach at SMU. In 2017, he brought the Mustangs to a 7-5 record that finished with a loss to Louisiana Tech in the Frisco Bowl. Before that, he had a combined record of 7-17 in his first two seasons at SMU.
He was a decent offensive coordinator under Dabo Swinney at Clemson, but that experience never showed as a head coach. After leaving Arkansas, he rejoined Swinney at Clemson in 2023 as an offensive analyst. His return to Clemson was part of a turbulent stretch after his dismissal, during which he held five different coaching positions in as many years, including a brief stint at the high school level in 2021.
Morris is currently serving as the senior adviser to the CEO of ANSRS (an Austin-based football data management) company while taking time away from coaching to watch his son Chandler Morris' final college football season.
Worst hires of the last decade, CBS Sports'
- Chad Morris, Arkansas
- Les Miles, Kansas
- Ryan Walters, Purdue
- Willie Taggart, Florida State
- Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee
- Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech
- Mike Riley, Nebraska
- Jimmy Lake, Washington
- Herm Edwards, Arizona State
- Bryan Harsin, Auburn
- Mel Tucker, Michigan State
- Kevin Sumlin, Arizona
- Scott Frost, Nebraska
- Nick Rolovich, Washington State
- Chris Ash, Rutgers