{"id":105620,"date":"2025-12-31T00:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/105620\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T00:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:50:11","slug":"could-a-healthy-behren-morton-be-the-edge-texas-tech-needs-to-overcome-oregon-in-cfp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/105620\/","title":{"rendered":"Could a healthy Behren Morton be the edge Texas Tech needs to overcome Oregon in CFP?"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Texas Tech<\/a> head coach Joey McGuire was prepared to gush over his quarterback \u2014 like, seriously, his signal caller\u2019s first name had just escaped his mouth to kickstart a story of resiliency and toughness \u2014 when Behren Morton<\/a> strode past his line of sight. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere he is,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cNo. 2 on the field, No. 1 in your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newsworthiness of this interaction didn\u2019t lie in the verbal exchange \u2014 especially given the well-documented shared adoration between the Red Raiders\u2019 head coach and his players \u2014 but rather in the physical happenstance of it all. <\/p>\n

Morton walked completely unencumbered from his breakout session podium at Hard Rock Stadium, past McGuire\u2019s stand and to the Big Ten Network set where his next round of interviews were set. <\/p>\n

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OK, sure, it sounds mundane. <\/p>\n

It might represent the edge that can propel Tech into the semifinals.<\/p>\n

Morton, a fifth-year quarterback, played the second half of the season with a hairline fracture in his right fibula and spent nearly two months in a walking boot<\/a> because of it. The Red Raiders (12-1) went undefeated with Morton behind center despite that, averaged 40.6 points per game in the five games he played after his injury and earned a first-round bye into the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Thursday, against Oregon (12-1) in the Orange Bowl<\/a>, they\u2019ll have a healthier Morton than they\u2019ve had in over two months. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to play healthy,\u201d Morton said. \u201cHow much better can I be when I\u2019m healthy? I kind of look at it that way. If I can do this while being injured, how much is the ceiling of being healthy? What can I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Morton was unable to participate in full practices after he suffered the injury in an Oct. 11 game vs. Kansas, wore the boot throughout each week, took it off for games and put it back on afterwards. McGuire allowed Morton to practice without the boot once before the Big 12 championship game. He hasn\u2019t worn it since Tech\u2019s 34-7 win vs. BYU<\/a> at Arlington\u2019s AT&T Stadium and has been \u201c100 percent in practice as far as team reps\u201d since. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve gotten to do that,\u201c Morton said. \u201dI think it\u2019s been good that we\u2019ve had this time off.”<\/p>\n

Morton acknowledged that the fracture caused him \u201cquite a bit of pain\u201d and will remain an ailment that he\u2019ll need to navigate. That\u2019s not unfamiliar territory for the oft-hobbled Eastland native. He suffered a grade five AC joint sprain two seasons ago after he was named starter midyear, played through it for the majority of last season and underwent surgery once it concluded. He exited Tech\u2019s season opener vs. Arkansas Pine Bluff this season with a lower leg injury, suffered a head injury three games later against Utah and fractured his fibula against the Jayhawks two games after that. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s missed only three total games in the last two years despite that. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of rallies your team a little bit,\u201d Tech wide receiver Coy Eakin said. \u201cTo see your quarterback go through some pain and understand that he\u2019s hurting really bad and still going out there and playing his butt off, executing the details day in and day out, there is no excuse to be tired, there\u2019s no excuse to be lazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three-plus weeks of layoff between the conference championship game and Tech\u2019s first playoff game, Morton said, allowed him to devote more focus to football versus rehab for the first time in months. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy health wise, when I\u2019m healthy, I think the offense expands a lot,\u201d Morton said. \u201cWe have so many playmakers, though, it makes my job easy. Whoever I can find open, get the ball to them quick, we can be really explosive.\u201d<\/p>\n

That could give the Red Raiders an edge in a game that will already feature arguably the nation\u2019s best defense opposite one of its most high-powered offenses. Tech\u2019s defense (the country\u2019s top-ranked unit per Pro Football Focus) and Oregon\u2019s offense (the country\u2019s third-ranked unit) are close to evenly matched. <\/p>\n

The Ducks\u2019 defense \u2014 which allowed more than 20 points only once in regulation during the regular season \u2014 is where a theoretical mismatch exists against a Tech offense that\u2019s been banged up and isn\u2019t as high-octane as those of the program\u2019s past. The duo of BYU and UCF, which Tech averaged 37 points against in three games, might\u2019ve been the best defenses that the Red Raiders faced in conference play. The Ducks are at the very least a tier above both.<\/p>\n

Morton\u2019s health could narrow the gap. The Red Raiders, per PFF, had five of their seven best offensive performances before Morton\u2019s injury and four of their five worst after it. He isn\u2019t inherently a mobile quarterback, but he was was sacked only once per game on average before the injury and more than twice per game on average after it, in part because of an inability to extend plays with his legs. <\/p>\n

The Ducks pressure quarterbacks in more than 10% of all pass-rush situations. Morton performed worse under pressure after his injury than before it and will now face an Oregon defense that includes projected first-round draft pick defensive lineman A\u2019Mauri Washington, second-team All-Big 10 defensive lineman Bear Alexander and edge rusher Matayo Uiagalelei (No. 40 on PFF\u2019s 2026 NFL draft big board). <\/p>\n

\u201cI think he is a good quarterback,\u201d Uiagalelei said. \u201cHe gets the ball to his best players. I think they\u2019re pretty balanced, they have multiple running backs that are pretty good, a lot of big wide receivers, tight ends that can catch the ball. I think it\u2019s a combination of everything that makes them so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morton, Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi said, \u201cruns the offense really well.\u201d He acknowledged that Morton\u2019s improved health could add wrinkles to Tech\u2019s offense that it hadn\u2019t shown on film in recent games. He called Morton the \u201ctotal package\u201d at quarterback and shot down any notion that Tech\u2019s middle-of-the-pack strength of schedule (54th in the country) is any indication of what the offense is or isn\u2019t capable of. <\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly don\u2019t go by the paper,\u201d Lupoi said. \u201cI go by the film. It looks pretty darned explosive on film.\u201c<\/p>\n

That\u2019s before they had a month to get themselves healthy, too. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this extra time has helped us get to that next level,\u201d Eakin said. \u201cI feel like we have a little untapped potential to go play at our highest level these next couple of games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Texas Tech coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire was prepared to gush over his quarterback \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7092,3688,154,27,29,28,415],"class_list":{"0":"post-105620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-behren-morton","9":"tag-colleges","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}