Morris No. 5 most important assistant hire this offseason

[aubiefifty 18,231]

247sports.com

Morris named No. 5 most important assistant hire this offseason

ByKeith Niebuhr

4 minutes

When Auburn's offensive coordinator spot opened last December after Kenny Dillingham left for Florida State, Tigers Coach Gus Malzahn moved fast -- Auburn fast, as they say -- to fill the position.

Soon, he had found a replacement. And, it was former Arkansas coach Chad Morris, his longtime friend dating back to when both were high school coaches -- Malzahn in Arkansas and Morris in Texas.

Without question, this hire was one of the biggest storylines in college football and Football Scoop has ranked it as the No. 5 most important assistant coaching hire of the 2020 offseason. The outlet writes:

When high school buddies room together in college, the relationship typically goes one of two ways. You’ve likely witnessed this phenomenon, or perhaps experienced it yourself. Either the personalities of the roommates click together like pieces of a puzzle and the friendship elevates another plane — peanut butter and jelly, peas and carrots, twins born from separate wombs.

Or, the relationship goes in the opposite direction — quickly, and with a vengeance. One roommate’s a neat freak and the other’s a slob, or one’s a night owl and the other’s an early bird, and by Thanksgiving two guys (or gals) that were best friends when they lived apart find themselves sharing a living space in icy silence.

Such are the stakes for the Gus Malzahn-Chad Morris relationship at Auburn.

This arrangement in nearly two decades in the making. Depending on how deep in the legend you want to go, Malzahn saved Morris’s career, back when the former was a legend-in-the-making in northwest Arkansas and the former a Texas high school coach struggling to salvage his career.

****

For much of his stint as head coach in Auburn, the offense has belonged to Malzahn. But now, that no longer seems to be the case. In fact, Auburn Undercover was the first outlet in the country to report Morris would run the offense in 2020.

Says FootballScoop ...

After having a documented push-pull relationship with play-calling, Malzahn is handing the proverbial clipboard over to Morris.

“You don’t hire a guy like Chad Morris unless you’re going to do that,” Malzahn said in January.

On paper, this is absolutely the right call. Morris runs a similar scheme to Malzahn’s — that’s the genesis of this story, after all — and he made his name at the major college level as an excellent offensive coordinator and an elite identifier and developer of quarterbacks. In fact, one could argue Morris’s early identification of Deshaun Watson college football’s single biggest turning point of the last decade.

***

There is no doubt Morris has inherited a bright young talent at the quarterback position.

Here's what FootballScoop said about Morris having Bo Nix with whom to work:

21COMMENTS

Bo Nix showed plenty of flashes in his true freshman season: throwing for 2,500 yards with 16 touchdowns against just six picks while running for seven more scores. In a season where Auburn faced six of the year-end AP Top 10 teams, Nix led Auburn to wins over No. 5 Oregon and No. 8 Alabama, with 1-score losses to No. 10 Minnesota, No. 4 Georgia and No. 1 LSU. In fact, no one played the 2019 national champions closer than Auburn.

With three years to mold Nix, it’s absolutely possible that the Malzahn and Morris pairing could lead Auburn to the College Football Playoff, if not in 2020 then quickly thereafter.

">247Sports

[auburn4ever 1,266]

If this season ever gets underway, I wonder how long it will take before Malzahn will take over the play calling. I'm thinking it will happen by the time we play Georgia if not sooner. Gus have done it many times before.

[gr82be 14,907]

58 minutes ago, auburn4ever said:

If this season ever gets underway, I wonder how long it will take before Malzahn will take over the play calling. I'm thinking it will happen by the time we play Georgia if not sooner. Gus have done it many times before.

 

[auburn4ever 1,266]

I'm sure y'all will cut me down or makes jokes about me, but you know for a fact that Gus has taken back the play calling again and again after he tells everyone before the season starts that the OC will have full control of play calling. Good luck Chad. You'll need it.

[Sizzle 3,948]

Chad didn’t take the job just for somebody else to call the plays. It really don’t matter what Gus does, if Bo throws a touchdown it’s because Chad was calling plays, if Bo throws an interception it’s because Gus was the calling the plays 🙄

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

I think if you watch how close we got to the glass ceiling in a few other seasons, and what befell us (2013 almost UGA plus FSU, two second half blunders, 2014 TAMU (and then...UGA), 2015 multiple teams, 2016 UGA, 2017 UGA, 2019 UGA), I think just having someone that UGA does not have much knowledge of is enough to make Chad Morris very desirable. And keep in mind, Chad snuck past a very electric, still healthy 2013 UGA, who just came off being maybe the 2nd best team in CFB. 

We just have to....not...lose to UGA 

every season begins and ends, now literally begins, with not losing to UGA 

[bigbird 60,939]

12 hours ago, Sizzle said:

if Bo throws a touchdown it’s because Chad was calling plays, if Bo throws an interception it’s because Gus was the calling the plays 🙄

This was the montra of the Gus is infallible group the past six years...turns out Gus really was taking control of play calling and changing game plans

[augolf1716 21,967]

43 minutes ago, bigbird said:

This was the montra of the Gus is infallible group the past six years...turns out Gus really was taking control of play calling and changing game plans

Sometimes just a few days before the actual game

[McLoofus 35,182]

13 hours ago, Sizzle said:

Chad didn’t take the job just for somebody else to call the plays. It really don’t matter what Gus does, if Bo throws a touchdown it’s because Chad was calling plays, if Bo throws an interception it’s because Gus was the calling the plays 🙄

Literally the only Auburn fans who've ever said this nonsense are Gus apologists. 

[bigbird 60,939]

16 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

Sometimes just a few days before the actual game

Including the day before

[McLoofus 35,182]

9 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Including the day before

And the results spoke for themselves. 

Part of me was relieved when I found that out. 

[abw0004 10,303]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

Literally the only Auburn fans who've ever said this nonsense are Gus apologists. 

Continuing to create a divide I see.

[abw0004 10,303]

2 hours ago, bigbird said:

This was the montra of the Gus is infallible group the past six years...turns out Gus really was taking control of play calling and changing game plans

What @Sizzle was trying to convey was well documented when Chip and Rhett were here by some posters.  Some will never give Gus credit when he actually did deserve it.  Not saying you Bird, but there are posters here that do this.  The big games we won, posters would strip Gus of any praise and divert it to someone else.  When we lose, all blame goes squarely on Gus.  So his point was critique Gus when he needs to be critiqued, but give him praise when he deserves it.

I would not be surprised at all if we have a 2019 LSU-style season this year, everyone will be praising Chad, and not praising the head coach for making the hire in the first place.  I would like to see Gus getting that praise like Orgeron did in trusting his staff to do what he hired them to do.  Does all of this make sense?

[SuperAUsome09 749]

I read that title "Morris No.5" and thought someone had found me in an old football video from high school. Then read "most important" and was like "oh nvm." 😄

[API 95]

59 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Does all of this make sense?

Yes.

[bigbird 60,939]

3 hours ago, abw0004 said:

What @Sizzle was trying to convey was well documented when Chip and Rhett were here by some posters.  Some will never give Gus credit when he actually did deserve it.  Not saying you Bird, but there are posters here that do this.  The big games we won, posters would strip Gus of any praise and divert it to someone else.  When we lose, all blame goes squarely on Gus.  So his point was critique Gus when he needs to be critiqued, but give him praise when he deserves it.

I would not be surprised at all if we have a 2019 LSU-style season this year, everyone will be praising Chad, and not praising the head coach for making the hire in the first place.  I would like to see Gus getting that praise like Orgeron did in trusting his staff to do what he hired them to do.  Does all of this make sense?

It would if those that were chanting the mantra ever levied criticism towards Gus. The majority criticize equally. That said, the Clemson games, the 2nd half implosion at LSU, and many others lay solely at the feet of Gus.

 

If Gus relinquishes all offensive control to Chad and we have a LSU-like turnaround, then both are more than deserving of all credit. Chad for the offensive changes and improvement and Gus for the hire and ability to stay out of it.

[abw0004 10,303]

6 minutes ago, bigbird said:

It would if those that were chanting the mantra ever levied criticism towards Gus. The majority criticize equally. That said, the Clemson games, the 2nd half implosion at LSU, and many others lay solely at the feet of Gus.  I agree with you on those games, but what about the ones we did indeed win?  Which ones can people actually give Gus credit to?  

If Gus relinquishes all offensive control to Chad and we have a LSU-like turnaround, then both are more than deserving of all credit. Chad for the offensive changes and improvement and Gus for the hire and ability to stay out of it.  I know people like you will, but the question is, will everyone else that have unfairly criticized?  Probably not, but I would love to be wrong.

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

28 minutes ago, bigbird said:

It would if those that were chanting the mantra ever levied criticism towards Gus. The majority criticize equally. That said, the Clemson games, the 2nd half implosion at LSU, and many others lay solely at the feet of Gus.

If Gus relinquishes all offensive control to Chad and we have a LSU-like turnaround, then both are more than deserving of all credit. Chad for the offensive changes and improvement and Gus for the hire and ability to stay out of it.

Exactly.

Also, it's fascinating that people interpret "Gus has done everything right except for recruit OLs and prepare an offensive game plan with a coherent identity and then lead it with good play calling on a consistent basis" as refusing to give him any credit.

Folks hear what they want to.