While Chad Morris' Razorbacks were settling into into their accommodations in Fort Collins, Colorado this past Friday night before taking on Colorado State on Saturday, Chad Morris was settling into the stands at his son's football game as Highland Park HS (TX). Chandler Morris is a three-star dual threat quarterback that holds offers from Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Colorado and Oklahoma, per 247.
The Razorbacks would end up losing that match up in the final eight seconds, prompting many fans on the search for excuses on how an SEC school could lose to a Mountain West team. Eventually, many of them settled on laying blame on Morris' absence during team activities on Friday night.
As coaches reading this are all well aware, that's hogwash, as all the work to be done for an opponent is done well in advance of the night before game. Activities that the Razorbacks had planned that evening, which associate head coach Jeff Traylor oversees in Morris' absence, include an optional chapel service, a team dinner, offensive and defensive meetings, yoga, and a snack before an 11pm lights out check.
“Everything is done here before we ever get on any plane or before we ever travel to any team hotel,” Morris shared with Whole Hog Sports before adding that his former boss Dabo used to attend his son's games on Friday nights, and Bob Stoops and Mike Gundy have done the same with heir boys, respectively.
As a nice little side note, Whole Hog Sports adds that because Morris is there watching his son, he is able to evaluate players at that game without it counting against the program's 42 allowed evaluation days, which is some nice icing on the cake. Especially seeing as Highland Park has, and will continue to take on some top-level Texas talent throughout the year. So while the rest of the staff is out every chance they get on Friday's using an evaluation day, Morris is able to knock out two birds with one stone by watching Chandler play.
For what it's worth, Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek voiced his support of Morris' decision to catch his son's games, and actually found himself in a similar situation the past four years as his son was playing college ball at Marshall.