Editor's Note: Dick Weiss, a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame, has covered college sports in Philadelphia and New York for more than 40 years. He will be providing regular commentary for the American Athletic Conference during the 2014-15 season.
Southern Methodist University is taking rapid steps to put its football program back together again with the hiring of Clemson's dynamic offensive coordinator Chad Morris as its new football coach.
From here, this looks like a home run, much like the school's inspired hiring of Hall of Fame basketball coach Larry Brown three years ago.
Morris, who will turn 46 this week, is the closest thing to a perfect fit for this American Athletic Conference school, located in the posh Highland Park neighborhood of Dallas. Morris has deep roots in the state of Texas. He grew up in the Edgewood section of Dallas, attended Texas A&M and was a high school coach in the Longhorn State for 16 seasons, building the respect of Texas high school football coaches when he compiled a 169-38 overall record and coached Lake Travis to consecutive state championship and 16-0 records in 2008 and 2009. He coached Garrett Gilbert, who played in the BCS National Championship at Texas and set records as SMU’s prolific quarterback in 2012 and 2013.
Morris is a lifelong SMU fan.
Now, he is coming home to the job he always wanted.
"It's a great day to be a Pony,'' Morris said as he put on a Mustang cap during his introductory press conference at the Hughes-Trigg Student Center on campus. "Growing up, I used to ride the school buses to Texas Stadium and sit in the end zone and watch SMU play. To know as a kid, if this job ever opened, this was the opportunity. This was the one.''
Morris has established himself as one of the most creative minds in the sport in his four years at Clemson, helping the ACC Tigers to a 41-11 record, including 27 wins against league opposition with an explosive up-tempo spread offense. Morris was in charge of a Clemson offense that scored 35 points and gained 491 yards in a 35-17 win over South Carolina this past Saturday. In his 52 games as offensive coordinator, the Tigers averaged 36 points and 468 yards per game. He guided the top three scoring offenses and four of the top five passing offenses in school history.
Morris was named 2013 AFCA National Assistant Coach of the Year last season when Clemson averaged 507.7 yards and 40.2 points per game and four players from the Tigers' offense, including All-America wide receiver Sammy Watkins, were selected in the 2014 NFL Draft. In 2012 the Tigers set school records for total offense with 512.7 yards per game and points per game with 41, ranking sixth nationally in scoring and ninth in total offense.
The numbers are staggering and should give SMU fans, who have suffered through 13 consecutive losses, including 11 this season heading into Saturday's final game against UConn, legitimate hope for the future.
The climb up the mountain will not be easy, but coaching can make a difference. This year, Justin Fuente took a Memphis team that was 3-9 in the 2013 season and transformed the Tigers into a 9-3 team that has already clinched a piece of The American title with a 7-1 record.
SMU had some moments during the June Jones era, winning bowl games in 2011 and 2012 when the Mustangs defeated Pitt, 28-6, in the Compass Bowl, and Fresno State, 43-10 in the Hawaii Bowl. But the program took a step back this season.Defensive coordinator Tom Mason has served as interim head coach since Jones stepped down, holding the Mustangs together and leading the team to near-misses against USF (14-13) and Tulsa (38-28).
Morris had been linked to the SMU opening since Jones resigned in September. Morris was one of the highest-paid assistants in college football, making $1.3 million per season. He was a hot commodity who was mentioned for multiple jobs over the past few seasons, including Texas Tech, Louisville and Vanderbilt.
Morris will receive about $2 million a year at SMU, The Dallas Morning News reported.
Morris and his high-octane offense were attractive to recruits at Clemson as the Tigers signed several four- and five-star prospects on offense. Morris had plenty of success in landing tall, rangy wide receivers that fit his style and brought in Deshaun Watson, the top dual-threat quarterback in the country in the class of 2014.
SMU is hoping that Morris will help SMU hold on to more local recruits in Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in particular. SMU has 68 Texans on its roster, the fewest of any FBS school in the state. The Mustangs have more out-of-state players (31) than Dallas-Fort Worth players.
Morris brings instant street credibility as a recruiter because of his strong ties with the great high school coaches in the area. "I'm a Texas high school football coach,'' Morris said. "People always want to ask me about Xs and Os but I think recruiting is all about relationships. I'll be hitting road immediately. I already have some visits lined up with some old friends. There are great players in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, right under our wingspan, a quarter of a tank of gas away.''
Morris has already contributed to one quick turnaround. In his first year as a college assistant, he helped the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, which won just five games in 2010, finish 13th in passing offense (288 yards per game), 15th in rushing offense (217 yards per game) fifth in total offense (505 yards per game) and eighth in scoring (41.4 points) during a 10-win season.
"You're going to see an exciting brand of football," Morris promised. "We're going to have the most explosive offense and explosive team in all of college football.
“It's going to be one of the biggest turnarounds in college football before this is over with. But it's going to take a lot of work."