Arkansas coach Chad Morris prefers multi-sport athletes

Morris spoke recently with SECcountry.com and talked about his preference to find high school players with experience in multiple sports. Sport specialization is a growing concern among coaches and athletic administrators — it ranked as the No. 3 concern for ADs in Coach & Athletic Director’s annual State of the Industry survey — but a majority of coaches say they prefer athletes with a wide range of experiences.

During the early signing period last month, Morris specifically discussed his fondness for pursuing prospects who play more than one sport at the high school level. The Hogs’ new coach sees the benefits of partaking in more than one sport from a multitude of perspectives.

“I want players that play multiple sports,” Morris said. “I feel like that does a couple things. Number one is it develops an overall, well-rounded skill set. And two, it shows me that this young man can be coached in different ways. Every coach that he deals with in a different sport coaches him a little bit different. If I have players that are dead equal and one plays one sport or the others plays two sports, I’m going to go after the two-sport first.”

Morris was hired as the new Arkansas football coach in December, roughly two weeks after the university fired Brett Bielema. Bielema also was a vocal advocate of playing multiple sports.

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