FAYETTEVILLE — When senior safety Santos Ramirez sat down for the first time with newly hired Chad Morris in early December, he carried one message with him.
Ramirez had grown tired of losing and losing big. He was over losing the tight games Arkansas found itself in, too. Ramirez, one of three players chosen to represent Arkansas in Atlanta, doesn’t want his final season to replicate his junior year.
“Santos, like a lot of our players, did not want to go back down the road they’d been on,” Morris said Tuesday at SEC Media Days in Atlanta. “When I first met him, it was very evident that (his mindset was), ‘Look, coach, we know change is coming and we’re excited about the change. We’re trusting you. You’re giving us hope.’
“‘I’m here to tell you I’m going to do everything in my heart to help get this football team together and where we don’t travel down that road again.’”
Last fall was a frustrating one for Ramirez, who felt Arkansas’ defense, if anything, became too predictable under Paul Rhoads. The Razorbacks finished last in the SEC with 19 sacks and 10th in the league with eight interceptions.
He’s hoping John Chavis’ aggressive nature will turn things around and turn opponents over. So far, he’s seen the former. Last season, Ramirez said it was as if teams knew Arkansas’ defensive gameplan before they stepped off the bus.
The Razorbacks are also in a fairly familiar position in terms of projected order of finish in the SEC West and low expectations. A number of pundits have predicted Arkansas will place last in the division, and it’s likely the majority of media members in Atlanta will slot the Razorbacks in the bottom half.
Arkansas has been predicted to finish better than fourth in the SEC West just once since 2012.
Offensive lineman Hjalte Froholdt and linebacker Dre Greenlaw aren’t concerned with the team’s preseason projection, but the Denmark native, who came to Arkansas envisioning playing for championships on an annual basis, said he understands why the media is low on Arkansas entering this fall.
“I don’t expect them to pick us any different. We were 4-8 last year. It is what it is,” he said. “But it’s in the past, and everything you guys are analyzing right now is that 4-8 team. We know what’s going on, and we know what we have at Arkansas, so we’re expecting more than that.
“I think if everyone on the team focuses on the culture coach Morris has brought in here we’re going to have success. It’s going to be a completely different year this year.”
Greenlaw said a lot of Arkansas’ issues last season – one in which it surrendered the most points in school history – didn’t stem from not having players, but the team as a whole lacking the ability to finish.
“A lot of people have us real low in the SEC, but we have talent,” Greenlaw added. “A lot of our games last year we lost wasn’t because of lack of talent.
“I think if we take that extra inch we’ll get the results we want at the ends of those games.”