Morris Stands Tall in the Pocket — and Answers Questions
Dylan Morris has done some pressure-packed things in his short University of Washington football career.
Won a four-player competition for the starting job.
Led the Huskies to one of their greatest comebacks ever, courageously directing his team from a 21-0 halftime deficit against Utah to a 24-21 victory.
On Saturday, Morris took it one more step — he faced his first UW media inquisition.
This past year, he might have been the only No. 1 quarterback among the Power Five teams who, with his school being a little extra protective of him, was shielded throughout a full albeit short season and then all of spring practice from having to answer a single pestering question from anyone holding a camera or clutching a laptop or a notebook.
Morris, as he did with the pass rush in 2020, held up well under this onslaught.
What we saw and learned from him was this: He's fully bearded now, rather than sporting that stand-alone funky mustache. He's patterned his game after Drew Brees. While he's not the typical towering Husky quarterback, the 6-foot Morris has a firm grasp of who he is and what he's supposed to accomplish.
"You have to be able to know what you're doing and deliver the ball," he said. "I take pride in that."
As they watched the Morris regime begin, the Husky naysayers questioned his size. His arm strength. The supposedly generic offense he headed up.
However, these so-called critics only saw what they thought they saw from the comfort of their living-room couches.
Watching Morris up close in practice, he throws a surprisingly hard football. It's not predecessor Jacob Eason's velocity, but his passes have some bite to them as they whistle downfield.
As for the offense, the Huskies kept it fairly simple last November when they put the redshirt freshman onto the field as the main guy. Predictably, he kept things by the book while making sure he did everything right.
Offensive coordinator John Donovan mentioned, as thing open up more this coming season, how Morris seems more confident to stray from the norm and improvise when he has to.
"He's got to do it operationally with his own flair, his own flavor," Donovan said. "Right now, he's not as methodical."
Still, as a rookie he was notably efficient, completing 67 of 110 passes for 897 yards and 4 touchdowns, while running for 2 more. He served up 3 interceptions and was sacked only when he ran out of bounds once.
Morris says he's comfortable with whatever he's asked to do in terms of offensive approach.
"I'm not a stat guy," he said. "If we're running the ball, getting 7-8 yards a carry, let's do it."
On the first day of camp, Husky coach Jimmy Lake was fairly emphatic in telling the same media gathering that Morris was his No. 1 quarterback, that there wasn't necessarily a competition for the starting job as there was the year before. Even with 5-star recruit, local sensation and legacy player Sam Huard on board.
"The biggest thing that comes to my mind is his decision-making," Lake said of a player he considers fairly mistake-free. "Dylan works at it."
For Morris, a local guy from Puyallup, Washington, he's made the most out of becoming the No. 1 quarterback and not wanting to give the job back any time soon. Huard might be the son and nephew of former UW quarterbacks, but Morris hails from a family that's had season tickets forever and raised him on Husky football.
"It was a blessing for me," said Morris, given the job just a week before the 2020 opener. "I dreamed of being a Husky quarterback my while life."
With that, the introductory press briefing ended for the UW offensive leader, the writers went off to tell his story from this short exchange and Morris looked no worse for wear.
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