Wednesday, Behren Morton, the Texas Tech football team’s 2021 quarterback target, signed his national letter of intent after reporting earlier this week that he was reconsidering his options.
For some programs, the opening of the early signing window for high school football recruits is always a dramatic event as hotly-contested recruiting battles are finally decided. But in recent years, there has been little in the way of chaos or excitement when it comes to the Texas Tech football program and signing day.
However, this year was a bit different thanks to QB target Behren Morton. The Eastland, Texas product spent much of his childhood in Lubbock where his father James was the head coach at Monterey H.S. and he’s been a Red Raider commit since October of 2019.
But Monday, after the Red Raiders announced the firing of offensive coordinator David Yost, the 4-star prospect took to Twitter where he said that he and his family were going to “take some time to reflect on the situation before moving forward”. The news had to hit Morton hard as Yost had been his main recruiter and the two had even taken to going over the Tech playbook together periodically.
Morton’s Tweet left many fans wondering if he was going to put off signing in the early window thus allowing for his recruitment to open back up into what would have been a veritable free-for-all given that he would have been one of the highest-rated players in the nation still left unsigned.
However, Tuesday Morton said on Twitter that he was going to sign his letter of intent on Wednesday. The problem for Red Raider fans was that he didn’t say which school he would sign with.
Fortunately, we found out on Wednesday that the young gunslinger will be sticking to his original commitment as he in fact did sign with the Red Raiders. That has to be one of the biggest signing day developments regarding Tech football in quite some time.
Likely playing into Morton’s decision to sign with Tech prior to the hiring of a new offensive coordinator was the fact that he has plans on being on campus at the start of next semester so that he can go through spring practices and compete for a starting job in 2021. Had he put off signing this week, he would have had to wait until February to sign and that would make made it impossible for him to participate in spring ball.
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Morton is expected to be a strong contender for Tech’s starting job next season. He’s the no. 12 pro-style QB in the nation and no. 28 player in Texas according to 247Sports.
To put that in perspective, Graham Harrell had similar rankings when he signed with Tech back in 2004. The all-time winningest QB in Red Raider history was rated the no. 8 pro-style QB in the country and the no. 22 player in Texas.
Comparing Morton to Harrell immediately is not fair but it does show how highly regarded of a prospect he is and why his signing was so key. What’s more, Tech desperately needs to find a long-term answer at that position and Morton might be the most likely option.
Neither Alan Bowman nor Henry Colombi showed enough this season to be considered solutions to Tech’s biggest problem. Meanwhile, we didn’t get to see 2020 QB signee Donovan Smith due to an injury that cost him his entire true freshman season.
Meanwhile, Morton was lighting up the high school ranks, albeit just the 3-A classification. And he turned the heads of several scouts along the way.
"“Legitimate Power 5-caliber quarterback prospect who’s a natural gunslinger type with a potentially high ceiling. Could become multi-year high-major starter in college with long-term NFL Draft potential,” writes Gabe Brooks of 247Sports on Morton’s profile page."
Don’t be surprised if Morton wins the starting job next year. A new offensive coordinator means that the playing field will be leveled quite a bit in the sense that every QB on the roster will be learning the system for the first time this spring.
If Morton can prove that the college game is not too fast for him right away, he could have all the tools necessary to be a day-one starter, which is rare for the QB position. And if he lives up to his massive potential, Red Raider fans may look back on Wednesday as one of the days when the Texas Tech football program finally starter to stabilize itself.