FAYETTEVILLE – Chad Morris was visibly upset with the way Arkansas started practice Monday morning.

After a lackadaisical first period, the team jogged from the grass practice field to the turf practice field and the first-year head coach lost it. He started screaming at the players and made them do up-downs as punishment while yelling at them to keep pushing.

It was the first time that side of Morris was put on display for the media and the players acknowledged it was a needed kick in the rear.

“He didn’t really have to say too much,” cornerback Ryan Pulley said. “The leadership…we took over at that time because we knew we started off slow.”

On the defensive side of the ball, that included Pulley, linebackers Dre Greenlaw and De’Jon Harris, safety Santos Ramirez and defensive lineman Armon Watts.

They knew that it was a subpar start and took the punishment in a positive way.

“Just a physical scrimmage, coming off an off day, I think the energy wasn’t there even in walk-throughs and warming up,” Harris said. “I think we bounced back, especially on the defensive side of the ball.”

Defensive coordinator John Chavis was a key figure in the defense getting things turned around at practice, as he got them riled up and they finished practice well.

Offensively, tight end Austin Cantrell pointed to offensive coordinator Joe Craddock’s praise following Saturday’s scrimmage being interpreted incorrectly as the root of the slow start. He said Morris is fiery every day, but was angrier Monday because the offense let its foot off the gas.

“Basically what he was saying was whenever you’re feeling bad, you’ve got to push through it,” Cantrell said. “If you’re not going to be a guy who’s going to be a solution to the problem, then you’re part of the problem.”

By all accounts, the Razorbacks – on both sides of the ball – rebounded and made it a productive day in the portion of practice closed to the media.

“We just went out there a little slow, but we picked up the energy at the end,” Pulley said. “He just gave us a nice message to motivate us a little bit and we’re going to come out there tomorrow and have a better day.”