Chandler Morris ‘despised’ football. At North Texas, the TCU-ex is having fun again (2024)

DENTON — Chad Morris sends his son a text message each morning. One, delivered on a Wednesday in August, read as follows:

“This is going to be the most fun you’ve had in football since high school.”

A father knows best what their child needs, right?

And, make no mistake, Chandler Morris undoubtedly needs that.

“I’ve had fun in all of college,” Chandler said just hours after his father’s remarks. “It’s just been a little difficult.”

That could be an understatement.

Morris, a former Highland Park standout, suffered two separate knee injuries in consecutive seasons at TCU that both cost him his job, dashed promising seasons and left him sidelined during a historic run to the College Football Playoffs two years ago. It forced Morris, a born-and-bred football prodigy, into uncomfortable and uncharted personal territory. He questioned his love for football. He questioned football’s love for him.

“I despised the game,” Chandler clarified.

And now?

“I feel confident in what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m just having fun.”

Morris, now a junior, transferred to North Texas this past offseason after consecutive nightmare seasons at TCU. He turned down interest from larger programs and orally committed to second-year head coach Eric Morris and the Mean Green in January after incumbent quarterback Chandler Rogers left for California.

He wanted to stay close to home in Dallas-Fort Worth. He believed he could thrive in a North Texas Air Raid offense that mirrors schemes that drew him to Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma and Doug Meacham and Garrett Riley at TCU.

He, above all else, wanted to start over.

“I think I really get to hit reset, go out there and prove who I really am,” Chandler said. “Nobody really knows my story. They weren’t with me seeing it. I really just get to hit reset, especially mentally, too, get to hit reset. It’s a fresh new start — just go out there, do what I do and have fun again.”

That’s the plan at North Texas.

“I think it’s a perfect storm,” Mean Green head coach Eric Morris said.

His quarterback had to survive a couple first.

‘It tests your love for the game’

Morris was cleared to play.

It was TCU’s fourth game of the season vs. nationally ranked Oklahoma two seasons ago. Morris won the Horned Frogs’ starting quarterback job in camp but twisted his knee in TCU’s season-opener at Colorado. He missed consecutive games against Tarleton State and SMU — both Horned Frogs wins — but figured that, once he was physically able, he’d return to the field.

He did not. Max Duggan did instead. The Horned Frogs rolled to a 55-24 win, which sent Morris and his teammates into a jubilant frenzy.

Then he drove home with his family.

“I just cried,” Morris said. “I was just so emotional. I was just kind of upset. I saw what was happening, I wasn’t going to be back on the field.”

The Horned Frogs rattled off an undefeated regular season and played their way into the College Football Playoff with Duggan at quarterback and, eventually, at the Heisman Trophy Ceremony in New York. Morris watched from the sideline.

For the first time.

Because, after six weeks as the Horned Frogs starting quarterback again last season, Morris sprained his left MCL in a loss to Iowa State and conceded the role to redshirt freshman Josh Hoover. He played just once more — vs. Baylor in November — that season before he entered the transfer portal in December.

“It tests your love for the game,” said Chad, the former Arkansas and SMU head coach who’s now the wide receivers/passing game coordinator at Texas State.

Of course, Chandler said, he “handled his business” in both cases. He worked to be the best teammate and best backup quarterback in the country. He watched the film. He’d try to “dominate” in practice. He checked each and every physical box required to play Division I football.

“But that love for it,” Chandler said. “it just wasn’t there, that fire wasn’t really burning.”

The rigors of college football don’t mesh well with a going-through-the-motions headspace. Chandler recognized that. So did his father.

“There was a point in time,” his father said, “he was ready to say ‘I’m done with this.’ It hurt that bad. You put so much into it, you give everything you’ve got through summer and offseason. To see the same injury happen again — and he’s not the first player to be injured, nor will he be the last — it tested him, and [made him question] whether or not he was ready to climb that ladder back again, to see if it’s really worth it.”

It required a response that Chandler hadn’t yet had to muster.

“I didn’t really think I was going to be able to get through it ... I didn’t know if I was going to be capable of it,” Chandler said. “There were a lot of nights — especially that national championship year, but last year also, a lot of nights — where I was just mad at the game. I was mad at the game of football.”

It’s a game best played, well, happy.

It took a trip to Denton to reacquaint himself with that understanding.

Unburdened

Blair Conwright witnessed the storms.

He’s seen them clear too.

“He’s just been like, a vocal leader,” said Conwright, who was once Morris’ wide receiver at TCU before he transferred to North Texas last year. “You can tell with the way he’s practicing and the way he’s throwing, he’s playing loose. He‘s playing like he has a control on the offense. Just by the way he throws, I can tell he’s having fun.”

Conwright even pulled Morris aside at practice one day and said, “Dude, it just looks like you’re having fun.”

“I really am,” Chandler said with a smile. “I feel loose.”

Loose, in this instance, is a synonym for unburdened. Morris no longer carries the weight of the last two seasons on his shoulders. They might have even freed him. The losses that football brought opened his eyes to the world outside of it and introduced him — for the first time in his career — to the mortality of the sport. He, in his own words, has “found things that make me happy” including an “awesome girlfriend” that he met at TCU and an adopted German Shephard, Daisy, that he rescued from his ranch. He no longer uses Twitter/X during the football season because, as he said, “if I need to gain confidence by looking at Twitter, I probably shouldn’t be playing this sport.”

“I had to go through storms to realize that stuff,” Chandler said. “I didn’t like the game for a little bit. It’s something that — it’s not eat, sleep, breathe football anymore. You’ve got to find that balance. I think I’ve really found that balance.”

That doesn’t mean that Morris isn’t entirely committed to football. He hopes to lead North Texas to the American Athletic Conference championship. He was named a captain before he’d ever played a meaningful snap for the program. North Texas quarterback coach Sean Brophy said that Chandler is a self-starter with a chip on his shoulder now. His father agrees, but contextualized it as a “relaxed, ‘I know I’m capable of doing whatever I want to do’” mindset.

“Nothing to prove,” Chad said, “it’s just ‘If I can stay healthy, I’ve got a chance to be great.’”

History concurs. Morris passed for more than 4,000 yards and totaled 66 touchdowns in his senior season at Highland Park and led the Scots to a state championship. He threw for 461 yards and two touchdowns in a game vs. nationally ranked Baylor in his first season at TCU. He passed for 1,419 yards and 11 touchdowns in just five games last season with the Horned Frogs before his knee injury.

“I just think [the last two seasons] has [allowed] him to be able to play free and have fun,” Eric Morris said, “and realize that, ‘Hey, football is a fun game that I’ve been playing my whole life. I’m going to go out there and rip it all over the field and have fun doing it.’”

That, after all, is the plan.

“I think he’s due,” Chad said. “Bottom line, he’s due.”

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