Hogs OK with shot at Morris

FAYETTEVILLE -- Auburn offensive coordinator Chad Morris will see a lot of familiar faces when he looks across the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium today.

The Tigers are playing the University of Arkansas, where Morris was the head coach for 22 games the previous two seasons.

Morris didn't get to finish the 2019 season. He was fired after 10 games when a 45-19 loss to Western Kentucky dropped his record to 4-18.

Razorbacks Coach Sam Pittman said he hasn't made playing Morris a rallying cry for his players this week.

"I'll be honest with you, it's just another football game to us," Pittman said. "We won't mention the fact that Coach Morris was the head coach here.

"They know it. Some of them probably loved him, and some of them probably didn't, just like any coach. We're going to take a business approach to it and go out there and try to do our best."

Arkansas senior receiver and kickoff returner De'Vion Warren praised Morris.

"Wonderful coach, wonderful guy," Warren said. "Didn't have any problems with him. He had what was best in mind for our team. And that's really it."

Sophomore nickel back Greg Brooks Jr. said facing Morris hasn't changed the Razorbacks' approach to the game.

"No extra emotions," Brooks said. "We're just going to go out there and treat it like it's a regular team. Like he's just a regular coordinator. We'll just do our thing."

Houston Nutt has been on both sides of Arkansas facing a former head coach.

As the Razorbacks' coach, Nutt faced South Carolina six times from 1999-2004 when Lou Holtz – Arkansas' coach from 1977-83 – coached the Gamecocks. Nutt also faced Alabama four times from 2003-06 when Joe Kines – Arkansas' interim coach for 10 games in 1992 – was the Crimson Tide's defensive coordinator.

When Nutt left Arkansas after the 2007 season to go to Ole Miss as head coach, he faced the Razorbacks four times from 2008-11.

In Nutt's first game against the Razorbacks, Ole Miss hung on to win 23-21 in Fayetteville.

"When you show up to the visitor's locker room at your old stadium, it's very, very weird," Nutt said. "Then to get booed, that was a hard deal. But once the ball got kicked off, you just focused on calling plays and trying to give your guys the best plan so we can win."

Morris will call plays today for Auburn's offense, so he'll be going directly against his former players on defense.

"He can game plan, scheme, all he wants," Arkansas junior safety Joe Foucha said. "We are getting ready as a defense for whatever he throws at us. Trick plays, anything, it doesn't matter. We're going to be ready as a defense.

"We're going to be dialed in, we're going to be focused. We're going to be all over it. That's all I can say about that."

Morris hasn't said anything to the media this week about playing Arkansas because Auburn -- like many colleges nowadays -- hasn't made its coordinators available for interviews since the preseason.

But Auburn center Nick Brahms didn't downplay the significance of today's game for Morris.

"I would say it's definitely personal for him," Brahms told reporters in Auburn. "In that matter, we're playing for him, we're playing for each other.

"I love Chad Morris. Coach Morris is awesome. I'm going to play for him, I'm going to play hard for him. I think everybody is, honestly"

Morris will be the fifth former Arkansas head coach to face the Razorbacks since 1999, and this will be the 16th time it has happened in a 22-year span.

In addition to the 10 games involving Nutt against Holtz and Kines, then Nutt's four games at Ole Miss, there was Jack Crowe's visit to Fayetteville with Jacksonville (Ala.) State for John L. Smith's first game as the Razorbacks' interim coach in 2012.

Crowe was fired one game into his third season at Arkansas after a 10-3 loss to The Citadel.

The Razorbacks beat Crowe's Jacksonville State team 49-24 to cap a span of 15 matchups involving Arkansas and its former head coaches from 1999-2012.

Today will be the first time it's happened in eight years.

"We have to go out there and make sure we focus on us and not let the game get too big," Warren said. "Just play our game and control what we can control."

Nutt played for Holtz at Arkansas in 1977 before transferring to Oklahoma, then was on Holtz's last Razorbacks staff as a graduate assistant in 1983.

"There's something about facing your former coach," Nutt said. "It gives you a laser focus."

Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn can relate to what Morris will be feeling today.

In Malzahn's first season as Auburn's head coach in 2013, the Tigers won 38-9 against Arkansas State University, where he had been the coach the previous year and led the Red Wolves to the Sun Belt Conference championship.

After being Arkansas' offensive coordinator in 2006 when the Razorbacks last won the SEC West title, Malzahn took the same job at Tulsa and in 2008 faced Arkansas with the Razorbacks winning 30-23.

Malzahn also has faced Arkansas 10 times as an offensive coordinator and head coach. He's 6-1 against the Razorbacks as the Tigers' head coach.

"It's always a little bit different," Malzahn said of facing a team where he previously coached. "But once the game starts, you just kind of flip the switch."

Nutt was in his second season at Ole Miss in 2009 when the Rebels played Tennessee, where Ed Orgeron was an assistant coach. He had been the Ole Miss head coach from 2005-07.

Orgeron led LSU to a national championship last season, but he was 10-25 at Ole Miss.

Nutt said that when he was getting ready to hold his normal Thursday night team meeting before the Tennessee game, four players wanted to talk with him before the meeting started.

"They said, 'Coach, you don't need to say anything to get us ready for this game,' " Nutt said. "I said, 'Really? Why's that?'

"They said, 'Coach, we want this one. We're excited to play our former coach. We're going to be very, very determined.' "

Ole Miss won 42-17.

"Those Arkansas players are going to be like, 'We're going to show you how good we are' when they line up against Chad Morris," Nutt said. "They'll be a lot of extra motivation."