Morris Resembles Another UW QB Short on Inches, Long on Heroics

Tim Cowan has never met Dylan Morris, but he went up and stood next to him one day at University of Washington football practice undetected, just to see how they compared height-wise.

Depending upon how you look at it, Cowan was Dylan Morris before Dylan Morris — unless Morris represents the second coming of Cowan.

So how did one Husky quarterback measure up against the other? First impressions were misleading for the older player.

I was thinking, 'He's tiny,' but he's not," Cowan said. "He's a helluva player."

At 6-foot, Morris stands as the shortest first-team QB at Washington in four decades — since Cowan, also a 6-footer.

Typically, the Huskies have pursued the big, strong guy with a howitzer for an arm to lead their teams. They've often turned to good-sized signal-callers such as 6-foot-6 Jacob Eason, 6-foot-4 Cody Pickett, Cary Conklin and Hugh Millen, plus the 6-foot-3 Steve Pelluer, Chris Chandler, Billy Joe Hobert and Jake Locker.

Cowan, originally from Cerritos, California, was able to make it work without the added inches. He relied on heart instead. He remains one of the more determined but hard-luck Husky No. 1 quarterbacks in modern times.

In 1981, this compact junior patiently waited for his chance and beat out the much taller Pelluer to open the season. Yet early in his second start against Kansas State, he broke his thumb. Cowan didn't play again until the Rose Bowl, when he came off the bench to mop up for Pelluer and score the final touchdown on a 1-yard run in a 28-0 victory over Iowa.

The following season, Cowan waited and waited before replacing Pelluer as the starter late in the season, taking over immediately after an unbeaten Husky team ranked No. 1 for six weeks lost to Stanford and John Elway 43-31.

Cowan was absolutely heroic in leading the UW to a gut-check 10-7 victory over ninth-ranked UCLA at Husky Stadium and an equally courageous 17-13 win over third-ranked Arizona State in Tempe. He had his team poised to advance to a third consecutive Rose Bowl appearance until rival Washington State spoiled everything by pulling out a late 24-20 upset in Pullman, Washington.

Finishing up his career, Cowan was sensational in the Aloha Bowl by outdueling Boomer Esiason in a last-second 21-20 victory over Maryland, enjoying one of the greatest passing afternoons in Husky annals. On Christmas day in Hawaii, he completed 33 of 53 attempts that were good for 350 yards and 3 touchdowns, all to wide receiver Anthony Allen, with the last one covering 11 yards and coming with six seconds remaining.

The similarities between Cowan and Morris in this type of performance are uncanny, to say the least.

In directing the Huskies to three victories in four outings in 2020, Morris helped engineer one of the greatest comebacks in school history. Matching Cowan's clutch performance coming inside the final minute, Morris steered a game-winning 16-yard scoring pass to tight end Cade Otton with 36 seconds left, bringing the UW back from a 21-0 halftime deficit against Utah to a 24-21 triumph.

The final scores, deciding pass plays and fleeting time frames were near identical. Dylan Morris easily could have looked in the mirror and seen Tim Cowan on his big day, and Cowan could very well do that now.

"I think he plays within himself," Cowan said. "I think he's a really good manager of the position of quarterback. He understands what his role is. Really what you have to do is orchestrate the offense, put people in positions to be successful. Whether it's linemen, checking off blocking assignments, to throwing a quick out to a guy not covered, just orchestrate it and not have to carry the load. He does a really good job doing that."

While much slender, weighing some 16 pounds less than the 200-pound Morris when he was a senior, Cowan concluded they were almost identical in height with his slyly conducted personal comparison.

All of the other Morris measurables since have been checked off by the older player, who spent four seasons in the CFL before becoming a Seattle-area business marketing leader and currently executive director at the Washington Athletic Club.

"He looks to be my height but a lot more girth than I never had," Cowan said. "I just really like his — I don't know if I want to call it maturity — but just his way about him, and how he seems to handle himself as a real positive leader who is going out there and makes correct decisions."

While both lean to the shorter side as a UW quarterback, they've had people automatically underestimate their passing velocity because of it, which is fateful mistake.

Maryland found out different about Cowan. Utah learned the same regarding Morris.

"I think he's got good arm strength, and he moves well, but I don't know what his burst is on a run," Cowan said. "He just gives me the sense that he's very confident, that he's composed, and he just knows how to make things happen."

Tim Cowan and Dylan Morris, two guys short on inches yet long on heroics.

Someone should introduce them one of these days.

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