State of the Hogs: Stadium something to see, makes you go wow

Matt Trantham speaks to media during a tour of the Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium north end zone renovation Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, in Fayetteville. Trantham, a senior associate athletics director, oversaw the $160 million project that added several suites and club-seating areas.

— Wow. Game changer. Unbelievable. Outstanding. Better than anticipated.

Unfortunately, that was the word today about the new north end zone expansion at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

That is not a description for anything that new football coach Chad Morris will put on the field against Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

There may be some wow in these Razorbacks, but it's all been kept under wraps. Almost everything is closed these days, all around the country.

To be fair to Morris, I'd do it that way, too. If I was a new coach, I wouldn't show anything.

Work behind closed doors, if you can. So don't take this as criticism of him. He's following a blue print that is hardly unusual now.

So at least the trip through the stadium was something new and exciting to see. I look to see something exciting on the field.

Sorry, but that's what I got out of listening to everyone Monday. It started at 9 a.m. when Hunter Yurachek's administrative team led the media through the new locker room, north end zone clubs and all the things that were built for $160 million. It finished when coaches visited with the media at noon a few hundreds yards south of the stadium in the football building.

It is exactly what Morris said when he was asked about renovation in the north end of the stadium as he was also detailing how he picked the quarterback and summarized Eastern Illinois, the first opponent at 3 p.m., Saturday.

There may be some wow in the Razorbacks, but it was clear that none of the quarterbacks really wowed anyone over the last eight months. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't have taken eight months to pick one over the others.

And, the order of the quarterbacks might be completely different by the end of Morris' first season. Everyone says that the two freshmen, Connor Noland and John Stephen Jones, do have some wow in them, although their coaches are not saying that just yet.

It's a strange jumble in the depth chart that Morris released Monday as the media was strolling through three levels of the north end zone facility. Here's the listing:

Cole Kelley is first, but there is an or next to his name to mean Ty Storey is still co-No. 1. The three are redshirt freshman Daulton Hyatt tied with Noland and Jones.

Remember this: one of those freshmen might be the guy by the time November rolls around. They may have as much wow as anyone on the team.

But that's not what produced the wows on Monday. It was definitely the look of the north end of the football stadium.

There is much that still has yet to be finished, but nothing that will detract from the fan experience on Saturday. The different levels are each striking in their own way. I walked into boxes on all three levels and can't imagine anything that should have been done differently.

The locker room is wow, wow, wow.

“That was the response I had and it was what our players thought when we took them in their Saturday,” Morris said. “Wow.”

Morris got his first real tour on Tuesday when he accompanied Yurachek, the new athletics director.

“I was blown away on Tuesday,” Morris said. “They got it right. Wow, i's a game changer.

“I had seen all of the pictures, but the pictures did not do it justice.

“Our players were jumping up and down when they walked in Saturday. It's going to be great.”

The locker room is massive. It's in the shape of a football, or really two footballs. There is an end for the offense and for the defense and a tiny middle finger that is for the specialists.

There are two entrances. There is one through the middle of the bottom level club seats so players can enter by the goal posts. They will walk through fans. There is a rock for them to touch in the shape of the state of Arkansas. There's a Razorback logo on the top of the rock, with a No. 1.

It ties together a theme that Morris loves: One state, one Razorback and everyone pulling together.

“We impact lives throughout the state,” Morris said. “They did an awesome job.”

I had no idea of what to expect from the stadium. It's a big step up from other areas in the stadium, many of which are now outdated. There have been some fixes in premium seating over the summer with new carpet and other amenities fixed.

None of it can look like the north end zone areas. The views are fantastic. The graphics are all cool at every level.

I had questions about the locker room, most notably would there be a locker for Brandon Burslworth. His locker had been covered in plexiglass after his death in April 1999. Of course, the Hogs did not have a true game day locker room last year while the north end was rebuilt.

“We talked with the family about how to honor his legacy,” Yurachek said. “We gave them the option of putting his locker back in the new facility, and where. It was decided it will go where the most can see it and that's going to be in the Hall of Honor.”

A new room for the Hall of Honor won't be finished until after the season. The old Burlsworth locker is in poor condition. It's particle board. It will be redone in a fitting way.

“The new Hall of Honor will be for everyone to see, but it won't be ready until after this season,” said Matt Trantham, a senior associate athletics director who oversaw the project.

Trantham should be congratulated. It was always under budget and always on schedule. I don't know if I have ever heard of both of those happening together.

It all excites the coaching staff. John Chavis and Joe Craddock got a chance to see it for the first time last weekend.

“It's outstanding,” said Chavis, the defensive coordinator. “It was done right. It's big time.

“It's going to help us in recruiting. You have to have great facilities to recruit.

“There is not a better game day locker room around the country. It was impressive, more so than I anticipated.”

Craddock is the offensive coordinator. Like Morris, he saw players celebrating and using their cell phones to take video.

“It's unbelievable,” Craddock said. “Our players got to see it for our mock Hog Walk. It was the first time to walk into it. There was a lot of hooting and hollering. They yelled, 'Look at this!'

“I think it's a game changer in recruiting. They see their name plates and their home towns. It's first class and we can't wait to break it in Saturday.”

It's all going to be fun to see for fans, but Morris knows just as much will depend on what his team looks like Saturday.

There have been no real chances to see the Hogs. All scrimmages have been closed to the public. The spring game was vanilla times two.

What will these quarterbacks be able to do in the Morris offense? Will there be a heavy dose of run-pass option?

The word Monday from Craddock was that installation has gone smoothly because coaches were able to figure out quickly in the spring what the current roster could handle.

“There are a lot of things (in the offense) that we have not installed,” Craddock said. “A lot of what we have introduced plays to our strengths. We did a good job of finding out what they could do in the spring.”

One thing that is becoming more obvious, Chavis will rotate more players than his immediate predecessors, Robb Smith and Paul Rhoads. There appears to be more depth.

But it also speaks to what Chavis has learned in his last stop, that when your offense is up-tempo, the best way to keep up is to keep putting in fresh men. Chavis said there may be as many as six play at the end spots, seven at the inside tackle spots.

“Let's be real, if you play up tempo, it's all about the number of snaps,” Chavis said. “You can't play well for two and a half quarters. If you don't keep your players rested, the fourth quarter gets away from you.”

Does that sound familiar? It's what has happened to Arkansas too much in the last few seasons.

There may be some who make you go wow on Saturday, but the best thing that most might say about this new team is that it's in shape. It's kind of like the old stadium that looks pretty good right now.

That's one thing that Morris could control, put a team on the field that is fit and maybe a little lighter with a little less weight. Maybe that makes everyone go wow while some real eyebrow raisers are recruited.

While the team is being rebuilt, there is something that is truly rebuilt and looking good. At least there were a few wows being spoken, even if they weren't about the current team.

Just remember the Hogs were 4-8 last season, the reason the last staff was fired. And, there isn't anyone around the SEC who thinks it will be markedly better this season as Morris takes over. They are picked last by the media.

That doesn't mean the Hogs can't change some minds starting Saturday. Morris said, “It begins our chance to tell our story.”

Maybe someone will say wow when it's all over, but they aren't just yet.



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Photos by David Gottschalk