A bulked-up Chandler Morris is ready to push for TCU’s quarterback job
Chandler Morris has put on 17 pounds this offseason and believes he’s ready to become TCU’s starting quarterback this fall.
He’s in the early stages of making his case with spring practices getting underway this week. Morris took first-team reps on Thursday, the second practice of the spring, after working with the second team on Tuesday. Senior Max Duggan, who has started 29 of the last 32 games for TCU, worked with the first team on Tuesday and second team on Thursday.
“I feel like I’m meant to be in this offense. I’m very familiar with it,” Morris said. “Just showing them I can obviously make plays with my legs, but also handling adversity. You go out there, you make a bad throw, throw it in the dirt. OK, snap and clear. It’s the next play. Just that I can handle adversity well.”
Morris went 8-for-9 passing (unofficially) and was “sacked” once during his three series in the team portion of practice on Tuesday. On Thursday, Morris was 5-of-7 (unofficially) passing during the team portion.
His favorite target on Day 1 was walk-on senior Gunnar Henderson, who caught five of Morris’ passes. On Thursday, Morris’ highlight was a deep touchdown pass to Blair Conwright down the near sidelines.
“Everyone is ready to get a ball in their hands and see what we can do,” Morris said.
Morris feels he’ll make a seamless transition into the version of the Air Raid offense run by coach Sonny Dykes and coordinator Garrett Riley. Riley has said that he wants the quarterback to understand the importance of ball distribution and getting the ball into playmakers’ hands quickly.
Morris, the son of former SMU and Arkansas coach Chad Morris, has been around these types of offenses his entire life and likes how much freedom the QB position has been given early on by Dykes and Riley.
“You’ll get to make a couple checks,” he said. “We made a couple checks today at practice. You can make the checks in practice, and come to the sideline, and if [Coach Riley] doesn’t agree with it, he’s going to break it down for you. He’s going to be hard on you, but he’s not going to be so hard on you that you can’t play freely. That’s been really good for us.”
Morris, a four-star prospect coming out of Highland Park in 2020, has spent two seasons in college football (the 2020 season at Oklahoma, the 2021 season at TCU) but still has four years of eligibility remaining.
The NCAA froze eligibility in 2020 amid the pandemic and Morris preserved his redshirt last season by playing in only four games.
Morris’ highlight last season came in his first career start, leading TCU to a 30-28 victory over then-No. 12 Baylor. Morris accounted for 531 yards of offense (461 passing, 70 rushing) and earned Big 12 offensive player of the week honors.
Morris started the game at Oklahoma State the following week, going 11-for-20 passing for 103 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions before exiting with an injury.
For the season, Morris completed 66% of his passes (50 of 76) for 695 yards with three TDs and no interceptions. Morris also rushed for 83 yards and one TD on 25 carries.
Morris believes he can become more of a rushing threat with his bigger frame this season.
“I’ve always kind of had that mindset,” he said. “It’s a long season and you have to protect yourself, so I’m not going to be shy to slide but if it’s a third and short and I’m in the open field and I’ve got to go get to the sticks, I’m going to do whatever I can. I feel a little more confident in my frame now that I can do that.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
