For the second straight year, Arkansas football fans had the luxury of a win in hand while basking in the schadenfreude of a former Razorback assistant at another Power Four school.
Last year, it was Chad Morris – as a special assistant to the head coach – and Clemson getting boat-raced on national television against Duke.
This year, Arkansas may be done with Dan Enos after he was unceremoniously fired after just eight games as offensive coordinator, but Enos isn’t done with the SEC. The Florida Gators hired Enos with a title similar to Morris, tabbing him a special assistant to the head coach while also tacking on “advanced scouting” to his duties.
The results after one game? Not good. Enos, sitting next to co-offensive coordinator Russ Callaway, watched from the press box as the Gators struggled for just 261 yards of total offense and starting quarterback Graham Mertz went down with a concussion in a 41-17 loss to the Miami Hurricanes.
Enos will have his hands full all year, with arguably a more difficult schedule than he faced at Arkansas. Florida still has seven ranked opponents on the slate. It might not be long before UF students get displeased enough to fire off a few emails. To make things more complicated, Mertz is in concussion protocol and his status is up in the air for Saturday’s game.
Florida Football Not Alone
Although Florida was the only team to pay for hiring an Arkansas assistant, they were far from the only team to flirt with disaster.
Led by second-year offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, TCU struggled in the red zone for most of the game against Stanford – a team that has not won a home game in nearly two calendar years against an FBS opponent – before eking out a 34-27 win.
TCU fans were far from pleased with Briles’ red zone play calling, the same thing for which he came under fire while at Arkansas.
Dowell Loggains, the former Arkansas tight ends coach and now offensive coordinator at South Carolina, nearly had $1.5 million worth of egg on his face.
The Gamecocks paid the Old Dominion Monarchs to come to Williams-Brice Stadium and were 20.5-point favorites, but needed a fourth-quarter comeback to win 23-19 after the Monarchs took the lead with less than 10 minutes to go.
(Rocket Sanders, by the way, finished that game with 88 yards and a touchdown on 24 attempts for an average of just 3.7 yards per carry.)
Chad Morris himself had a few hairy moments against Lamar despite Texas State, where he’s now the wide receivers coach and pass-game coordinator, being 30-point favorites.
After scoring 15 points in the opening quarter, the Bobcats’ offense sputtered for most of the next 30 minutes, with the only points coming from Mason Shipley, their placekicker and the twin brother of Arkansas kicker Matthew Shipley.
Texas State was forced to go for it on fourth down deep in its own territory late in the fourth quarter to keep Lamar from getting the ball back with a chance to take the lead. The gamble paid off, as Texas State hung on for a 34-27 win.
Not All Former Arkansas Football Assistants, Though
The one bright spot? Former Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom picked up his second Power Four win of his tenure at UNLV with a wire-to-wire victory over Houston, beating the Big 12 team by a final score of 27-7.
A plethora of former Hogs who followed Odom to Las Vegas played huge roles in getting their season off to the best possible start and establishing the Rebels as a dark horse candidate for the Group of 5 bid to the College Football Playoff.
Little Rock native and former Arkansas walk-on Jackson Woodard – the Preseason co-Defensive Player of the Year for the MWC – notched a team-high 11 tackles, including 4 for a loss and 3 sacks. The oft-injured Jalen Catalon had two interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown. Malik Chavis and Mani Powell combined for 5 tackles, while Jalen St. John started at left tackle.
Not only is Odom the head coach at UNLV, but his defensive coordinator is former Arkansas linebackers coach Michael Scherer and his special teams coordinator is James Shibest, who both played and coached for the Razorbacks.
If the Rebels – which is not a traditional power in the Mountain West – continue winning and make the MWC Championship Game for a second straight year, there will almost certainly be more calls for Odom to be the next Arkansas football coach if Pittman doesn’t get things turned around against actual, legit competition.
It seems like Odom is an outlier. The track record of other recent Arkansas assistants who have gone on to take jobs at prominent schools has been spotty at best, so buyers beware.
Meanwhile, Hog fans will bask in the schadenfreude that comes their way.
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