COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Two days ago, Texas A&M volleyball coach Jamie Morrison stood alone in the Reed Arena student section. Behind him was a cavernous wall of vacant maroon seats. In the social media video shot in that moment, his raspy baritone voice echoes in the emptiness.
It doesn’t matter that Morrison used the video to announce free student tickets to this weekend’s NCAA Tournament first and second round games at Reed Arena. The Aggie student section had taken to the third-year college volleyball coach well before the gesture, of which he is footing part of the bill, as evident by the raucous cheers when he takes the court or the enlarged cutouts of his bald and bearded head that floats above the Reed Arena stands.
“I hate being the center of attention, so whenever they’re just chanting my name, I’m like, ‘There’s other people down here too,’” Morrison deflected with a chuckle. “But, I think some of that’s just, I tend to be a little bit more authentic and real.”
As the Aggie volleyball team prepares to host its first NCAA Tournament First and Second Round matches in Reed Arena since 2019, A&M volleyball fans know what Morrison has meant to the sport within Aggieland in the last three years. However, his impact on the college game, at large, has been felt well outside the Brazos Valley.
“When you train at the international level, you look at the game completely different,” TCU head coach Jason Williams said. “So, he’s able to bring some innovative and do some unique kind of training in the way that he gets his players to think about the game. So, he’s great to have in the college ranks.”
Prior to arriving in Aggieland, Morrison was on the coaching staff of the 2008 gold-medal United States men’s Olympic team, as well as silver and bronze women’s teams in 2012 and 2016. He then served as the head coach of The Netherlands team for three years before his career brought him fully to college volleyball.
That experience plays out on the court in very fast play, which doesn’t allow opponents’ defenses to set a block. It is also evident in how A&M serves and controls the ball on their half of the court, Campbell head coach Greg Goral said, as he prepares to lead his squad against the Aggies in first-round action Friday at 6 p.m.
A&M enters the tournament ranked seventh in the country in kills per set (14.44), 10th in hitting percentage (.296), and sixth in assists per set (13.60) — all products of Morrison’s high-octane offense.
“Knowing how to do it at an international level, where teams are pretty even and the talent level is really high, there are those little bits and pieces — nuances to the game, that if he can train it in younger players earlier, they are going to be more successful,” Goral said.
Ask Morrison what his impact has been on the college game in the last three years, and the answer is akin to the aggressive style of offense his team plays on the court — a relentless effort to grow the game.
It’s evident at A&M in setting five of the program’s top 10 home attendance records this season, including the 9,801-person crowd against Texas that tops the chart.
Behind the scenes, it includes his work on the NCAA rules committee, as well as others nationally and with the Southeastern Conference. In any of those endeavors, Morrison believes he has pushed administrators and others to look past the limits of what they believe the sport can be.
“I think it’s that side of me that, when I’m committed to something and when I’m very passionate about something, I’m going to make it happen. And I think that’s happened here at A&M, but it’s happening in the general volleyball space as well.”
Some of this he attributes to his time serving on the business side of the professional League One Volleyball in the years prior to coming to A&M. He had to study how to make the league profitable, which means making games an enjoyable experience to watch in person or on television.
In Reed Arena, Morrison moved the student section to the opposite side of the court, so the costume-wearing, energetic students would be featured on the television broadcasts of the games. He’s worked with the game day operations team to revamp the in-house environment of the match, including audio cues for celebrations like the “Monster Block” riff.
Before A&M’s No. 16 match against Georgia, Morrison remembered the referee pulling him aside for a moment, showing him his efforts had not gone unnoticed.
“I know you have a lot going on with your program, but I just want to thank you for what you give back to this sport,” the official told him.
His quest is far from done. As the Aggies welcome the NCAA Tournament back to Reed Arena, Morrison feels the national organization should allow the hosting programs leeway to provide the exciting environment fans have become accustomed to at top programs. There’s also the matter of asking students to pay full price for tickets, an issue he solved temporarily out of his own pocketbook.
He has been “annoying,” in his own words, to the NCAA on these issues and plans to continue to press.
“Let this be the most entertaining atmosphere that it possibly can, and that’s going to show up better on TV,” he said is his message to the NCAA. “And if it shows up better on TV, more people are going to tune in. If more people tune in, our sport’s going to become more popular.”
Morrison and his players believe they have the 12th Man addicted to the sport, and that will easily fill the student section in hopes of seeing the intensity of postseason volleyball. They firmly believe the stands will be rocking behind the Aggie bench throughout the weekend.
And, in all honesty, it’s an experience Morrison wishes he could have.
“It seems fun up there to the point where I’d love to go sit [there] at a volleyball match now. Maybe that will happen one day,” Morrison joked. “I’ll take a break for a set and cheer in the student section.”
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