As New Coach, Ty Storey Follows Three Ex Hog Quarterbacks In North Arkansas

Ty Storey

-Tommy Foltz and Evin Demirel

UPDATED

Ty Storey — the Arkansas native-turned-WKU Hilltopper who put the nail in the coffin of Chad Morris’ two seasons in Fayetteville —  is coming back to northwest Arkansas.

Grimsley Junior High, a new school opening in Centerton, announced on Tuesday night that Storey will be its seventh grade football and basketball coach.

WHERE HE WAS:

Storey’s currently in his hometown of Charleston, and it’s not the one in South Carolina.  He said, “There’s no better place to ride out the coronavirus than Charleston” in a recent interview on Buzz 103.7’s “The Show With No Name.” Smart kid.  It doesn’t take much to maintain social distance there even though he’s the second-most famous person to come from Charleston behind U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers.

He’ll be moving to Centerton, but will coach in the Bentonville School District in a feeder school for Bentonville West High School. Currently, the top junior high football program in the county is often Bentonville’s powerhouse Fulbright Junior High, which hosted a tournament featuring Lebron James’ son “Bronny” James in 2019.

“Teaching is a good opportunity to reach out to kids and mold them. I obviously want to be a football coach and that comes with it. … It’s a great place to start and I know in times like this, I’m pretty fortunate to keep coaching there, especially with people losing jobs and there’s a lot of question marks about football season in general.”

-Ty Storey via the Bowling Green Daily News

Other former Razorback quarterbacks coaching in north Arkansas include Ryan Mallett, who recently moved to Mountain Home, Zak Clark (head coach of Springdale High) and Casey Dick, who started his career as a junior high coach in Springdale and later became the offensive coordinator at Bentonville West.

Dick is now the head coach at Fayetteville High, where former Razorback quarterbacks Brandon and Austin Allen played.

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Ty Storey is good friends with Brandon Allen and Austin Allen, but he knew they were going to start as Razorbacks in front of him. “That’s just the way it was going to be.” Still, he looked at it as a “growing opportunity” and that his time would come.

He was happy with the Chad Morris hire because he would be able to play in the spread offense again.  He said he likes competition, but there was too much of it between him, Cole Kelley and later Connor Noland.  He basically said it hurt the team’s ability to coalesce around a QB, and that the rest of the players never gelled into a true team.

He has no hard feelings. “I’m still a Razorback fan, big time. There a still of former Razorbacks I keep up with that are really good friends.” Still, he acknowledged that at that “level you’ve got to produce and we weren’t winning games.”  So, he sensed the writing on the wall and he knew Morris was actively recruiting quarterbacks like Nick Starkel and Ben Hicks (we saw how that worked out). 

In another interview, with “The Morning Rush,” Storey added: “Coach Morris was honest with me. He told me they were talking to Ben Hicks about potentially coming in… He never asked me to leave.”

Still, Storey transferred to Western Kentucky and came back to Fayetteville in November to drum us like John Bonham would do in a drum solo for Led Zeppelin.

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REALLY?

At one point, “The Show With No Name” co-host David Bazzel said: “You might not know this, but a lot of Hog fans were rooting for you.”  

Really?  Who?  I’d like to know because I’d like to borrow Connor Noland’s baseball bat and run into them in a dark alley.

I mean, I’m all for Ty Storey all the time — except when he’s playing the Hogs.

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SUCCESS:

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I’m happy for him that he found success at Western Kentucky.  I just wish he hadn’t been so successful against the Hogs.  He was named Conference USA’s Newcomer of the Year.  Even though he didn’t start at the beginning of the year when WKU lost to UCA, he:

—threw for 2,567 yards

—produced a 69.9 percent completion rate, ranked fifth in the nation and first among Group of Five quarterbacks

—threw for 14 TDs vs. 7 interceptions (and ran for another 7 TDs)

—led WKU to a bowl game win

HERE’S THE DEAL:

Before choosing to coach junior high, Storey said he wanted to play in the NFL. “It’s still maybe an option if I get that call, but I’m not holding on to it,” he told the Bowling Green Daily News. “At the end of the day, I’ve had a good career if I do have to hang it up.”

It says something about how beloved he is in Arkansas that he left NWA, came back and whipped us like a junk yard dog, and then still returned to get a public education job just a few months later.  He relieved us of the Chad Morris era, which may be his enduring legacy as someone who played for the Hogs.  No one can blame him for that.  After being ousted, he found a home and you gotta dance with the one that brung ya.  

C’mon. Did anyone really expect him to take it easy on the coach who basically gave him his walking papers?

Based on what I heard in the interview, he’s a smart, articulate and humble guy.  I hope him the best of success as a coach, and I hope he gets enough players on campus given that the Bentonville School District just announced they will allow students to choose virtual school for the fall semester. Storey had the deck stacked against him with the Allens being on campus and playing behind a line that was as porous as a slice of Swiss cheese.

He’s no longer a prodigal son, and we should all root for him now.  Arkansans should be proud to say Coach Storey is one of us.

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For more about a former Razorback turned junior high coach, see the below:

http://www.bestofarkansassports.com/insider-update-on-deanthony-curtis-terrifying-burn-recovery/

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The below published on December 28, 2019:

Ty Storey’s Return: Arkansas’ No. 3 Biggest Sports Story of 2019

by Tommy Foltz

On November 9th, the roof officially caved in on the Chad Morris era at Arkansas. Former Hogs quarterback Ty Storey dealt the blow.  He had come back to Fayetteville like a tornado wrapped in a hurricane during an earthquake.

Just five years ago, such a demolition seemed unimaginable.

Ty Storey, after all, had grown into a local legend shredding records during his time at Charleston High School (sharing the same hometown as former Arkansas governor Dale Bumpers).

As a 4-star recruit, Storey was considered the sixth-best pro-style QB in the nation according to Rivals.  He went undefeated in his last two seasons at Charleston winning the Class 3A state championship both years and was named the MVP in both Championship games.  He finished out his high school career with 29 consecutive wins. 

His records included:

—12,586 yards passing (3rd most in Arkansas high school history)

—154 touchdown passes (2nd in Arkansas history)

—Completed 66% of all passes

—Gatorade’s Arkansas Player of the Year as a senior

—3A All-state team as a Sophomore, Junior and Senior

—All-State in basketball and baseball

—Chose Arkansas over Alabama, Auburn, Louisville and others

Storey was the Second Coming who would rescue the Hogs from any adversity we might face.  Had there been any legitimately tall buildings in Charleston, it was was rumored he would be able to leap them….

FAYETTEVILLE:

As a Razorback, Storey’s career started slowly. He redshirted his first year, and didn’t do much beyond a rush for a 5-yard loss in his redshirt freshman or sophomore years. Apparently, someone sprinkled Kryptonite on his Cheerios every morning and he redshirted.  

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