Later this season Oklahoma State is going to play Texas Tech and that means head coach Eric Morris is going to have to face his alma mater.
Plenty was made of that game at Big 12 media days because he played four seasons under legendary head coach Mike Leach, grew up at nearby Shallowater and spent several years as an assistant coach in offensive coordinator under Kliff Kingsbury.
But it isn’t the only Big 12 school he has a connection with. After Morris’ college career ended and he spent one year in the CFL with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he started his coaching career in 2010 as an assistant offensive quality control coach at Houston. The following season he was a graduate assistant.
In a sense, the gig spoiled him. Back then, Houston’s offense made everything look easy.
“I remember thinking coaching football was the easiest thing ever, just because Case [Keenum] made us right in everything that we did,” Morris said.
Morris joined the staff for the final two seasons under then-head coach Kevin Sumlin. He was a passing game disciple as well. He worked under Joe Tiller at Purdue, who designed a passing game that elevated the career of Drew Brees. Sumlin was also the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma a few years after Leach left for Texas Tech.
Under Sumlin Houston went 35-17 in four seasons and was one of the most productive offenses in the country with Keenum as the triggerman.
Keenum was a small-town kid like Morris, as he was born in Brownwood (Texas) and later played at Abilene Wylie High School. Keenum still holds the FBS record for most passing yards in a career with 19,217 and became the first player in FBS to pass 20,000 total yards for a career.
So yes, Keenum made everything look easy. Morris only learned the truth as a young coach after he left when Sumlin took the Texas A&M job and he headed west.
“I went to Washington State the next year and found out it wasn’t that easy,” Morris said with a chuckle.
It worked out for both Morris and Keenum. Morris ended up back at Tech and helped design the offense that catapulted Patrick Mahomes to becoming a first-round pick. He took a tough head coach job at Incarnate Word and turned it into a winner. He did the same at North Texas before taking the OSU job, where the Cowboys are 4-1 after winning just four games combined the last two seasons.
As for Keenum, well he’s never approached what he did at Houston. But the undrafted quarterback has carved out a 15-year career that is still ticking. He led the Chicago Bears to a Monday Night Football win last month. He piloted the 2017 Minnesota Vikings to the 2017 NFC Championship game.
But, in Houston, Morris learned the ropes coaching a high-flying passing game, something he’s applied at every job since.
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