Morton held his Texas Tech teammates accountable
The quarterback is the most important position on the field. Anyone who plays the position has to be intelligent, a leader, and hold teammates accountable. Morton showed some of that Saturday night even when the outcome was decided.
On their last offensive possession of the game, the Red Raiders and Morton were looking for the cherry on top of a perfect sundae. Looking deep Morton threw an interception to Tarleton State’s Les Odimara.
The problem was receiver Loic Fouonji went to block the defensive back instead of looking for the ball. It almost appeared as though he thought a running play was called instead of a pass. Both were clearly not on the same page.
The discussion would have ended there had Morton not taken his helmet off when he started walking to the sideline while clearly yelling in Fouonji’s direction. He obviously looked upset when he saw Fouonji make a big mistake that was the sole reason the interception happened.
Sure the play had little to no impact on the game itself, but how often does one see a college quarterback go at a teammate and hold him accountable for doing something wrong in the moment? Some might look at that as Morton being selfish and upset because Fouonji’s mistake caused the pick, but others might look and say he has good leadership qualities.
Most of the time players will go over those mistakes in the film room, but Morton seemed comfortable talking about that error in that moment. Fouonji did not appear to retaliate at him showing that he knew he made a mistake. Holding people accountable is what can help make a group successful and if Morton possesses that quality, McGuire should consider what he has in him.
Morton finished the Tarleton State game going 8/13 for 72 yards with two touchdowns and one pick. While Shough outperformed him on the stat sheet, the one statistic Morton was better in was quarterback rating. He finished with a 55.5 while Shough finished with a 16.7. Despite those numbers, McGuire made it clear in his postgame press conference that Shough is the starter going into conference play against West Virginia. However, based on the first three games, Shough should be looking over his shoulder a lot because Morton seems more than capable of stealing his job.