TU's New Play Caller

Energetic. Enthusiastic. Confident without appearing cocky. Those are my first impressions of T-U’s new co-offensive coordinator, Chad Morris. What I found interesting from Monday’s introductory news conference was that Morris and head coach Todd Graham each acknowledged (the T-U head coach brought it up first) that Morris turned Graham down in the beginning, and that the Lake Travis High School head coach had to do a lot of soul-searching before making his final decision.

Morris’ teams have won the last two Class 4A state titles in Texas, and he’s had a lot of success helping quarterbacks (Garrett Gilbert of Texas, Jevan Snead of Ole Miss, Cody Spano of Nebraska) find homes at division one (now known as FBS) schools. He’s close with former T-U coordinator Gus Malzahn. Texas A&M brought Morris in to help with ideas for the Aggie offense last off-season. He’s probably turned down other chances at the college level.

We asked him the first thing he looks for in a quarterback- he said an ability to communicate. Morris says he reads body language quite a bit, too. He’s very familiar with GJ Kinne, and says he has to straighten things out with Shavodrick Beaver for the times Beaver’s high school team eliminated Morris’ Stephenville squads.

The whole goal for Graham and Tulsa is to get back to the rhythm they had two seasons ago, with Malzahn calling plays, and co-offensive coordinator Herb Hand helping with the o-line and the run game. If Morris has even 75 percent of the success the Hurricane enjoyed in the Malzahn era, expect the yards, the points, and a lot more wins to come.