FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas coach Chad Morris traveled to watch his son, Chandler, play quarterback for Highland Park on Friday. The next morning, they went deer hunting.
Defensive coordinator John Chavis woke up at 5:45 a.m. Saturday after returning to an empty home from a recruiting trip and treated himself to a pork chop sandwich his wife, Diane, made and left for him.
Joe Craddock, challenged by his expecting wife to spend time with the family, grilled steaks and watched football following a shopping spree for winter clothes with his soon-to-be two-year-old daughter Charlie. Thanks to the bye week, Craddock is ahead of schedule on the LSU gameplan and is striving to have everything in place by mid-week.
"It’s any day now," Craddock said of his wife Abby's pregnancy. "I think by Thursday we’ll probably induce and do that whole deal on Thursday. ... When we had Charlie, she actually came on Tuesday morning before our last game a couple of years ago, and that was tougher."
A change in perspective and break from the daily grind for coaches and players was much-needed, Morris said Monday. Morris encouraged them to "get away from it" and gave them the day off. He, though, admittedly wound up watching games throughout the day - as did Chavis.
Sunday, he said he saw a room full of hands go up after asking which players took advantage of the opportunity to simply sit down and watch football on the team's idle Saturday. They were refreshed, and not playing sparked a number of players, Morris added.
"Some of them said, ‘Coach, I did it all day long. I watched ball all day long and couldn’t wait to get back in here. I missed competing,'" Morris said. "That was the big message. ‘Coach, we missed being out on that field. We missed going out and competing.’ So there was a lot of energy, a lot of excitement."
The Razorbacks' bye week allowed younger players valuable practice reps and a number of banged-up contributors to continue healing from injuries. Defensive back Kevin Richardson is expected to return against No. 9 LSU this weekend while running back Devwah Whaley is questionable and will be evaluated throughout the week, according to Morris. Whaley did not play against Vanderbilt after undergoing ankle surgery.
Morris also anticipates linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who played only a handful of snaps in Arkansas' loss to the Commodores, and senior receiver Jared Cornelius (ankle) to play on Senior Night. They were on the field for the team's practice Sunday night in green jerseys and should be full speed on Tuesday. Tight end Jeremy Patton (ankle) is still not ready to return.
"Last week gave us an opportunity to get better," Morris said. "Got a chance to get our legs back underneath us. ... Had an opportunity last week to focus on ourselves, which is the message. And the message isn’t going to change."
Without question, the Razorbacks will have the rest advantage against the Tigers on Saturday. LSU fell at home to top-ranked Alabama 29-0 and will travel to Fayetteville for Arkansas' first night game of the season in Razorback Stadium. It will be the Tigers' first road game since a 27-19 loss at Florida on Oct. 6.
LSU has won the last two meetings with Arkansas and five of the last seven in the series, including a 38-10 win in Fayetteville in 2016 when Ed Orgeron was serving as the team's interim head coach. Morris is hoping the night-game atmosphere can make an impact on the game and in a "big recruiting weekend."
"I’m excited about the game being at 6:30," Morris said. "I think it’s going to give our fans an opportunity to get into the stands and get loud and create a gameday environment that I’m excited to see.
"I have not coached in a game here at night. I’m excited about that."