Chad Morris
Chad Morris went 18–40 as a head coach, 2015–2019, at SMU and Arkansas. Share
- Record
- 18–40 career
- Seasons
- 5
- Schools
- 2
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Dec 4, 1968
- Alma mater
- Texas A&M 1992
- Best season
- 2017 7–6
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | SMU | 2–10 | T–5th (West) | |||
| 2016 | SMU | 5–7 | 5th (West) | |||
| 2017 | SMU | 7–5 | T–3rd (West) | Frisco (not coached) | ||
| 2018 | Arkansas | 2–10 | 7th (Western) | |||
| 2019 | Arkansas coached 10 of 12 games | 2–8 |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 16 | 1–15 | 6% |
| Against top-10 teams | 6 | 0–6 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 18 | 4–14 | 22% |
| Conference games | 38 | 8–30 | 21% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 17 | 5–12 | 29% |
| At home | 33 | 14–19 | 42% |
| On the road | 23 | 4–19 | 17% |
| At neutral sites | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 16 | 12–4 | 75% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 42 | 6–36 | 14% |
His own 58 games on file, 2015–2019, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philip Montgomery 2015–2018 | 2–2 | Tulsa | 4 | |
| Seth Littrell 2016–2018 | 2–1 | North Texas | 3 | |
| Gary Patterson 2015–2017 | 0–3 | TCU | 3 | |
| Ken Niumatalolo 2015–2017 | 0–3 | Navy | 3 |
Chad Morris’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| North Texasseries | 4 | 3–1 |
| Tulsaseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Tulaneseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Houstonseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Memphisseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Navyseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| TCUseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Colorado Stateseries | 2 | 1–1 |
How he was hired
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994–97 | Eustace HS (TX) high school | Head coach | |
| 1998–99 | Elysian Fields HS (TX) high school | Head coach | |
| 2000–02 | Bay City HS (TX) high school | Head coach | |
| 2003–07 | Stephenville HS (TX) high school | Head coach | |
| 2008–09 | Lake Travis HS (TX) high school | Head coach | |
| 2010 | Tulsa | Assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2011–14 | Clemson | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2015–17 | SMU | Head coach | |
| 2018–19 | Arkansas | Head coach | |
| 2020 | Auburn | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| 2021 | Allen HS (TX) high school | Head coach | |
| 2022 | South Florida | Offensive analyst | |
| 2023 | Clemson | Offensive analyst | |
| 2024 | Texas State | Wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator | |
| 2026–present | Clemson | Offensive coordinator |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Todd GrahamTulsa
- Dabo SwinneyClemson
- Kevin SteeleAuburn
- Gus MalzahnAuburn
- Daniel Da PratoSouth Florida
- Jeff ScottSouth Florida
- G.J. KinneTexas State
Assistants who became head coaches
- Van MaloneHampton
- G.J. KinneTexas State, Incarnate Word
- Jeff TraylorUTSA
- Barry Lunney Jr.Arkansas
- Ron CooperEastern Michigan, Louisville, Alabama A&M, Long Island University
- Daniel Da PratoSouth Florida
Worked under (7)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todd Graham | Tulsa | 2010 | Assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Dabo Swinney | Clemson | 2011–26 | 2011–14: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; 2023: offensive analyst; 2026: offensive coordinator | |
| Kevin Steele | Auburn | 2020 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Gus Malzahn | Auburn | 2020 | Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Daniel Da Prato | South Florida | 2022 | Offensive analyst | |
| Jeff Scott | South Florida | 2022 | Offensive analyst | |
| G.J. Kinne | Texas State | 2024 | Wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (6)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Van Malone | SMU, 2015–17: defensive coordinator | Hampton | |
| G.J. Kinne | SMU, 2017: graduate assistant; Arkansas, 2018: offensive assistant | Texas State, Incarnate Word | |
| Jeff Traylor | SMU, 2017: assistant head coach and running backs coach; Arkansas, 2018–19: assistant head coach and running backs coach | UTSA | |
| Barry Lunney Jr. | Arkansas, 2018: tight ends coach; 2019: special teams and tight ends coach | Arkansas | |
| Ron Cooper | Arkansas, 2018–19: defensive backs coach | Eastern Michigan, Louisville, Alabama A&M, Long Island University | |
| Daniel Da Prato | Arkansas, 2019: special teams quality control coach | South Florida |
Other assistants under him (5)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Gillespie | Stephenville HS (TX), 2003–07: assistant coach | |
| Joe Craddock | SMU, 2015–17: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; Arkansas, 2018–19: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| John Chavis | Arkansas, 2018–19: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| John Scott Jr. | Arkansas, 2018: defensive line coach | |
| Xavier Adibi | Arkansas, 2018: defensive analyst |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Clemson | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $120,417 | $1,301,250 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Morris’s teams went for it on 18% of fourth downs and on 26% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 51% of plays and took 24.2 seconds a play, 2015–2019.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 12 g | SMU | 20 of 95 21% | 36% | 48% | 25.3 | −0.01 | |
| 2016 12 g | SMU | 16 of 111 14% | 22% | 52% | 22.3 | −0.04 | |
| 2017 13 g | SMU | 20 of 100 20% | 33% | 52% | 22.9 | +0.15 | |
| 2018 12 g | Arkansas | 13 of 103 13% | 16% | 50% | 25.6 | −0.08 | |
| 2019 12 g | Arkansas | 20 of 98 20% | 27% | 55% | 25.0 | −0.07 | |
| All 61 g | 89 of 507 18% | 26% | 51% | 24.2 | −0.01 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.