Sitting Out, Oklahoma OT Wanya Morris Was Able to 'Learn a Lot About Myself'
NORMAN — It wasn’t the smoothest start to a season for Wanya Morris.
But after being suspended for the first two games, Oklahoma’s senior offensive tackle was back on the field last Saturday at Nebraska, and he wasn’t pouting about his situation.
“For me, I just took it as a learning period,” Morris said after practice Monday night. “Took it as an experience to get better. I got two more extra weeks than everybody else to stay prepared and get ready. All I did was stay in the weight room, stay in the playbook. When I came back, it was like clockwork.”
Morris won the starting job on the right side of the line, only to miss the UTEP and Kent State games. His violation remains undisclosed, and head coach Brent Venables said it was an “off the field issue.”
Whatever the reason, Oklahoma’s offense looked efficient against the Cornhuskers with Morris on the field. He had yielded his spot to TCU transfer Tyler Guyton, but after Guyton got the first two series in Lincoln, Morris was back.
“I was just out there having fun,” he said. “Good to be back out there with my guys and competing with my guys. I love this team. It’s fun to compete with them. As you can see, we’re going to do a lot this year.”
After Morris’ first possession ended in a punt, he helped lead six of the next seven drives that ended in a touchdown, with another ending in a missed field goal.
Trust wasn’t an issue. Chemistry looked fine. Ability was there. The former Tennessee transfer is big (6-foot-6, 310 pounds), athletic and powerful as he holds down the right side of the offensive line.
Including his two weeks on the offensive scout team, Morris has something else that offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby likes.
“You know, Wanya’s a — he’s a guy that’s gone through some stuff,” Lebby said. “He’s lived it. He’s got some great experience (19 starts in 23 games in Knoxville).
“And so I think being an older guy, being a more mature guy, gave him the ability to help us down there on the other and give the defense a great look while he was getting ready to get to Lincoln and get on the field. So he handled it in a very mature way. Really the way we expected and then played hard Saturday afternoon.”
Morris took the right approach to his scout team exile.
“Only way you can approach it is to get better,” he said. “You’re going against Reggie (Grimes), R Mason (Thomas), (Marcus) Stripling – you’re going against the first-team defense. All you can do is get better at that point. That’s all I was thinking about.
“Being over there showed me I need to work on my little fundamental things more and more each day. Because the little things are what make you great.”
Meanwhile, Guyton got valuable experience at both left tackle and at right, where he swapped with returning starter Anton Harrison.
“I was proud of him,” Morris said. “He came in here and did what he needed to do. He was doing his thing. You can only be happy when your guy is doing his thing and performing the way he should be.”
Through much of the Saturday’s game, Morris was all smiles.
“It was good to get back into the emotion of things, get back with the team,” he said. “It was a lot of fun. I had a lot to release, so just go out and do it.”
He said the area in which he grew the most during his suspension was maturity. Tough lessons usually lead to profound growth.
“Those two weeks I had off definitely helped me see a lot and learn about myself,” he said. “How you respond to things is how you are as a man. I took that as how am I going to respond and build my character, build something? Always finding something. How am I going to get better?”
Another thing Morris learned: how to watch a game from home.
“You almost watch it like a coach,” he said. “I’m sitting there and watching it, I’m calling the calls, I’m staying engaged, I’m taking vicarious reps. That’s the biggest thing – vicarious reps for me. That’s why it was so easy for me to come back in. I know the game plan, so I’m making the calls with them. If somebody messes up, I know what’s going on. We come in Sunday, watch film, ask a question, I know what went wrong.”
Morris said being suspended was “a little bit,” hard to accept after winning the job last spring and working so hard in the offseason.
“But you know, you have consequences in life,” he said. “You have to accept consequences in life, both good and bad. No matter what they are. That’s what I did. Take what you’re given and try to make the best of it.”
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