The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1510285
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 ■ 25 the class of 2022, per the On3 Industry Ranking. Beasley was amazed by Morris' ascent after overcoming the obstacles he faced in the middle of his high school career. Said the coach, "He fought his way back to prove that he's an elite guy." 'He Just Kept At It' A year ago, Morris was thrown into the fire after starter Devin Leary went down with an injury and backup Jack Cham- bers struggled. The wide-eyed freshman led the Wolfpack to a 22-21 win over Vir- ginia Tech and a 30-21 victory over No. 21 Wake Forest. But against Boston College, his fifth appearance and second start of the sea- son, Morris sustained a knee injury. He finished the game — a 21-20 loss — but that was it for his freshman year. This past spring, following the con- clusion of the Wolfpack's offseason drills, Morris returned to the Atlanta area determined to grow as a quarterback. He had a pretty good idea that he wasn't go- ing to win the starting job over Virginia transfer Brennan Armstrong, a more ex- perienced college player. However, Mor- ris treated his summer workouts as if he were the starter. He wanted to be ready if his services were needed. That approach stood out to Beasley. "He works like a starter, even though he knew he wasn't going to start," Bea- sley said. "He just kept at it. There was no care that he wasn't the starter. He was going to work until he got his op- portunity." After Morris returned to Raleigh for preseason camp, his assessment of the team's quarterback hierarchy was con- firmed when head coach Dave Doeren named Armstrong the starter. It wasn't a talent-based decision — both signal- callers had the necessary skills — but Armstrong had years of experience run- ning offensive coordinator Robert Anae's system when Anae was at Virginia. The plan was to redshirt Morris, but Armstrong was up and down in his first five games and had 3 second-half turn- overs against Louisville. After the 13-10 loss to the Cardinals on Sept. 29, Doeren opted to make a change. "We went with experience and wanted to give [Morris] a chance where he had an extended period of time to be healthy and develop as a player," Doeren said. "We're bailing on [the redshirt] a little earlier than expected, but he's got an en- tire offseason, all of training camp, and the whole month of September here un- der his belt. He feels good, and it's what the team needs." Doeren handed the keys of NC State's offense to Morris, who shined in his op- portunities a year earlier. And this time around, he's shown flashes of that same performance. Morris led the Wolf- pack to a 48-41 win over Marshall with 265 p a s s i n g ya rd s and 4 touch- downs in his 2023 debut a f t e r h e rebounded from 2 first- quarter inter- ceptions. " H e 's a m e n ta l ly tough young man," Do- eren said afterward. "I wouldn't expect anything less from him, and he's going to respond — that's who he is. When he gets in tough situations, he's going to fight. He's got a great personality that way, you saw that." His second start wasn't as smooth. The visiting Wolfpack lost 24-3 to No. 17 Duke, and Morris went 24-of-40 pass- ing for 193 yards with an interception. But his resilience, the same quality that helped him get through his injury difficulties as a high school player, im- mediately kicked in. After taking owner- ship of the offense's struggles, Morris said he was eager to find a solution and looked forward to using the Pack's bye week to improve. "We're going to do a lot of soul searching to see how we want to finish this season," he said. "We want to fin- ish off the right way. … We've got to do something to fix it. I feel like this comes at the right time. Definitely a lot of work to be done." ■ " Some of the quarterbacks that I train are in it for all the glitz and glamour that a quarterback gets. MJ, he does it because he loves the game. He has a crazy passion for it. " QB Takeover Coach Brian Beasley Seeing his first action of the season, Morris threw for 265 yards and 4 touchdowns to lift NC State over Marshall, 48-41, on Oct. 7. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP