FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- Arkansas football coach Chad Morris announced Tuesday (Jan. 9) who will be joining him as offensive and defensive coordinators.
Joe Craddock will take over as offensive coordinator and John Chavis will be the defensive coordinator. Craddock had already been on staff for Morris and helped in recruiting for Arkansas but the title was made official on Tuesday while the Chavis hire had been expected for several weeks.
Craddock spent the past three seasons as offensive coordinator at SMU, and coached at Clemson for three seasons as an offensive graduate assistant. He will also coach the team's quarterbacks.
“I am extremely excited to be a Razorback,” Craddock said. “This is a great opportunity for me and my family. I’m honored to continue to serve alongside Coach Morris and work with an incredible offensive staff. I can’t wait to develop relationships with our players and get to work on the field this spring. I look forward to recruiting elite talent to Fayetteville, developing our players, putting together an explosive offense, and competing in a league as competitive and strong as the SEC.”
In his three three seasons at SMU, Craddock's offense had a 3,000 yard passer along with two different 1,000 yard rushers and two different 1,000 yard receivers.
“Joe is one of the bright, young minds in all of college football,” Morris said. “He worked underneath us at Clemson and was very instrumental in our success there. I took him with me to SMU and saw him grow both as a person and as a coordinator during the last three years. He has a great mind and feel for the game, and I’m excited to have him on our staff and what we bring to the table in our high-powered offense.”
Chavis has coached as a defensive coordinator for the past 23 seasons. He was at Tennessee from 1995 to 2008, LSU from 2009 to 2014 and Texas A&M from 2015 to 2017. He was the 2011 winner of the Broyles Award. He will also be the linebackers coach.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to help Coach Morris build the Arkansas program and join the great staff that he is putting together,” Chavis said. “It’s a great time to be at the University of Arkansas and I can’t wait to get started on building a defense that our fans can be excited about.”
Chavis won the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant in 2011 and has been the defensive coordinator on 12 different teams that won 10 games or more.
“I’m excited to have Coach Chavis as our defensive coordinator, which was a very important hire for our program,” Morris said. “It’s so important to play great defense in the SEC and Coach Chavis brings a wealth of experience, knowledge and success in the league to the table.”