IT IS DONE: Chad Morris Shocks Razorbacks Nation with Revelation About 2019 Loss to Western Kentucky
IT IS DONE: Chad Morris, the previous head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, stunned fans by making a significant announcement on the team’s loss to Western Kentucky on November 10, 2019, and left head coach Sam Pittman speechless…..View more 👇👇
IT IS DONE: Chad Morris Shocks Razorbacks Nation with Revelation About 2019 Loss to Western Kentucky
In a move that caught Razorback Nation completely off guard, former Arkansas head football coach Chad Morris resurfaced this week with a bombshell announcement that left even current head coach Sam Pittman reportedly speechless. Speaking publicly for the first time in years about the Razorbacks’ devastating 45-19 loss to Western Kentucky on November 10, 2019 — a game that effectively ended his coaching tenure at Arkansas — Morris stunned fans with a deeply personal and reflective statement about the events that transpired behind the scenes.
The game, played in Fayetteville in front of a stunned home crowd, was a humiliating moment for the program. Western Kentucky, a non-Power Five school, outplayed the Razorbacks from start to finish. The most stinging part of the loss came from the fact that WKU’s quarterback, Ty Storey, was a former Arkansas starter — a player Morris had benched and subsequently saw transfer out. Storey threw for a touchdown and ran for another in a performance that many fans viewed as poetic justice.
Less than 24 hours later, Chad Morris was fired, ending his tenure at Arkansas with a dismal 4–18 overall record and an unprecedented 0–14 mark in SEC play. The loss capped off a run that saw the Razorbacks drop 17 straight games in the conference — the worst streak in program history.
But it was Morris’s recent comments that gave the game new context. Speaking on a podcast hosted by a former SEC coach, Morris revealed that tensions within the coaching staff and athletic department had reached a boiling point weeks before the WKU game. He stated that he had offered to resign earlier that season after sensing that he had lost the locker room — but was convinced to stay the course.
“I knew we were in trouble,” Morris said in the interview. “There were decisions being made that were out of my hands. The trust was gone, and honestly, I felt like the team was no longer responding to me.”
Perhaps most surprising was Morris’s admission that he had tried to re-recruit Ty Storey to stay with the program during the offseason prior to the 2019 campaign. According to Morris, it was Storey’s personal frustration with the coaching staff and a perceived lack of support that led him to transfer. “I’ll be honest — seeing him on that field, playing for Western Kentucky, and beating us the way he did — it was a moment that said everything,” Morris said. “It hurt. But I understood it.”
Morris also acknowledged that his rapid rise through the coaching ranks — from high school football to offensive coordinator roles at Clemson and eventually the head job at SMU — may have left him unprepared for the challenges of leading a major SEC program. “I wasn’t ready,” he admitted. “I thought I was. But the SEC humbles you. Arkansas deserved better.”
Reports indicate that when Sam Pittman, who succeeded Morris as head coach in December 2019, was shown a clip of the interview, he had no immediate comment. Sources close to the team said Pittman was “visibly surprised” and “deeply reflective” after hearing Morris’s revelations. Pittman, who has worked hard to rebuild trust within the program, has never publicly criticized Morris, maintaining that every coach “does the best they can with what they’ve got.”
Chad Morris’s legacy at Arkansas remains complicated. Though his time in Fayetteville was brief and tumultuous, his recent honesty has prompted a wave of discussion among fans, some of whom now view him with a bit more sympathy. Still, for many, the pain of the Western Kentucky loss — and the larger collapse under his leadership — is a scar that won’t easily fade.
As Razorback fans look toward the future, one thing is clear: the echoes of that November day in 2019 are still being felt. And thanks to Chad Morris’s surprising candor, a new layer of the story has finally come to light.
