Gus Malzahn and Chad Morris won’t be the only ones rekindling a friendship this weekend when Arkansas travels to Auburn as the Tigers’ starting quarterback goes way back with the new Razorback coach.

During his recent media availability, Jarrett Stidham admitted he’s a “huge fan” of Morris when asked about the Razorback coach. If you were unaware of how far back their relationship goes back, Morris was the head coach at Stephenville High School in Stephenville, Texas from 2003–2007. Stidham would later go on to play for Stephenville before signing with Baylor in the 2015 recruiting cycle and, of course, later transferring to Auburn.

“I know Coach Morris really, really well. Grew up going to school with his – I think his daughter was in my grade, so I know her and (his son) Chandler, much younger than me,” Stidham said. “It’s funny, whenever they were moving from Stephenville to Lake Travis (High School), my parents actually looked at buying their house. So I’ve known him forever, I was a big fan of his coach when he was the coach there at Stephenville and have kept up with him ever since, I’m a huge fan of Coach Morris.”

As Stidham notes, Morris moved on to Lake Travis where he coached until he got his college job when he was hired to be the offensive coordinator at Tulsa in 2010. While Stidham has a high regard for Morris as a coach, he notes he’s an even better person.

“I’m a huge fan of him. He’s got a great personality, I think he’s definitely a players’ coach,” Stidham continued. “Everywhere he’s been he’s been super successful, all the way back to Stephenville, Lake Travis, the list kinda goes on. He’s been very successful everywhere he’s been so (I’m) looking forward to seeing how his year here at Arkansas goes.”

Those comments should give Arkansas fans some hope following the rocky start to the Morris era in Fayetteville as Stidham and Malzahn have been aware well aware of what Morris is capable of accomplishing well before the vast majority of Razorbacks even knew the name Chad Morris.