Almost any college football coach will tell you that recruiting is the life blood of a program. For Arkansas, a school desperate as any to be a good—nay, a great—football school, recruiting is both critically important and incredibly difficult.

Chad Morris and his staff may have objectively one of the toughest jobs in all of the SEC, definitely the toughest in the West, trying to recruit a high volume of elite talent to their program. The current state of Arkansas football, the school's location, in-state talent level and Morris's history all create a large obstacle that's currently keeping the Razorbacks in the cellar. While some obstacles can be removed, others just have to be accepted and maneuvered around.

Whether they love recruiting or hate it, there's no denying that without recruiting consistently high-ranking classes, coaches can't consistently win at a top-25 level. The same principle also works in reverse, you can't play at a non-elite level and maintain high-level recruiting—unless you're Tennessee, but more on that later.

HawgBeat took a poll on Twitter last year of football recruits asking them which factor weighed most heavily on their college decisions. Relationships with the coaching staff came in as the winner while, surprisingly, team record came in last. That proved true for Arkansas's 2019 class that finished ranked no. 20 on Rivals despite a 4-8 season in 2017 and a 2-10 season, a historical low, in 2018. However, the numbers over the years will show that, even if subconsciously, team record does matter, especially in the SEC.

Since the last SEC expansion in 2012, Arkansas has had the worst regular season conference record (13-43). The Hogs are followed by three schools from the East, Tennessee, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, then Ole Miss. Arkansas has the worst 11-year recruiting ranking average (30.8), followed by Mississippi State, and Ole Miss comes in behind them with an average of 21.

There's one school in the SEC that consistently does less with more, going against the idea that winning plays a big role in recruiting, and that's Tennessee.

The Vols haven't had a class ranked outside of the top 20 by Rivals in the last 11 classes but they have the second worst SEC conference record after Arkansas at 17-39. Jeremy Pruitt doesn't have to extend his recruiting footprint quite as far as programs like Arkansas and Kentucky because Tennessee's in-state crop often has at least 10 or more 4-stars. Even if the Vols only land half their in-state 4-stars, they'll still come up with more than the Razorbacks or the Cats could if they signed every one of their in-state elites.

Kentucky shocked many last season by going to the Citrus Bowl ranked no. 12 and winning against no. 17-ranked Penn State. They did that with five recruiting classes all ranked no.35 or better, however, they do play on the weaker side of the conference and they are expected to take a step backward this season.

Since in-state recruiting isn't reliable, Arkansas must expand their footprint to the nearest states. It doesn't help that on top of only having a couple 4-star in-state prospects a year, Arkansas competes with Texas, Texas A&M and the nation's top programs for talent in their biggest recruiting area, the Lone Star State. The Aggies, the Longhorns, the Sooners, the Vols, they're all recruiting well, none of that helps Arkansas. Prospects will typically stay closer to home if they have a good option to do so.

Arkansas administrators knew what they were doing when they hired Chad Morris after the 2017 season. They hired a former Texas high school football coach who found major success as an offensive coordinator at Clemson but who hasn't ever won as a head coach at the SEC level.

The other coaches in the SEC West, Nick Saban, Gus Malzahn, Jimbo Fisher, even Matt Luke, have histories of winning at this level.

Prospects and their parents have to feel comfortable signing with a coach and their resume can help create that feeling. Right now, Coach Morris is unproven, that's an uncontrollable variable. Morris can only proceed and hope to add SEC wins to his name this season and in the future.

While Morris is unproven at this level, his high school coaching days in Texas set him up nicely as far as recruiting goes, and he's assembled a staff with ties to the program's footprint states as well. You can't make the University of Arkansas come any closer to recruits' homes but you can make Arkansas feel like home, which is something Morris and his staff have done so far.

Despite a bad SEC record and middling recruiting classes, Arkansas has still managed to put good numbers of players into the NFL. They've had 16 NFL draft picks since 2015, which ranks in the middle of the SEC.

Other positives for Arkansas include the fan base, campus, facilities, student-athlete assistance, nutrition and more. Academics are a toss up as only one SEC West school, A&M, even ranks in the top 100 according to the 2019 U.S. News rankings.

Arkansas proved with the 2019 class that they can recruit in the top 20, but you can guarantee it was a lot harder, and it took a lot more work than it takes the other SEC West schools.

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