As the 2024 Texas Tech football season begins, all eyes will be on Behren Morton. In his first fall camp as the starting quarterback for the Red Raiders, he will take on a leadership role and become one of the faces of the program.
On Tuesday, Morton met with the media to talk about a variety of topics, including the offensive line, his new receivers and his relationship with star rookie Micah Hudson. Here’s what he had to say.
“It’s definitely been fun,” Morton said. “The camp was, that was definitely my favorite camp. It’s been great to be the guy as well and have full control of the offense. The new weapons we’ve gotten make my life a lot easier in practice so it’s really fun to go out there. The shoulder is 100% fine, I’m not missing a rep, I’m making over 125 to 150 throws a day so I’m not missing a rep and I feel really good.”
Knowing that Morton has no limitations on his throwing because his shoulder is 100% healed is the best news Texas Tech fans could ask for. He was unable to complete a large portion of spring practice, so every rep he gets with his receivers will be crucial in fall training camp.
When we talked about the new receivers, Morton was asked what he’s noticed about this group. Not surprisingly, he said the updated receiver room makes his life easier.
“It makes the defense’s job a lot harder with all the weapons. It’s one-, two- and three-man,” he said. “From Tyson Turner to the freshman we have, we have talented guys that can compete with the ones and that depth is going to be very helpful all season long.”
“And then secondly, that we have guys like Josh Kelly, Caleb Douglas and Coy (Eakin), who had a great training camp, Micah (Hudson) as well and Jalin Conyers. I mean, the list is endless. Just the depth that we have makes my life a lot easier.”
Speaking of five-star 2024 prospect Micah Hudson, Texas Tech fans want to get as much information as possible on the high school All-American wide receiver. Morton talked about his relationship with Hudson and how he’s trying to get him back on track since he missed all of spring practice.
“Micah, there’s no ceiling for him,” Morton said, “and I want to keep him at his best while I’m here and help him because from high school football to college football, it’s a big step. And he wasn’t able to play in the spring, so he didn’t get to experience all the ins and outs of the game, and that’s why I’m trying to help him as much as I can because we play in 25 days.
“And just staying on top of it. Also the playbook, I mean, it’s a complex offense. Coach Kittley does a great job with our scheme and so every day there’s a new playbook with 60 plays and so yesterday we had 60 plays, today we had new plays with 60 and it’s like that every day. You have to go home when we finish around 9:30 and you have to study at least an hour before you go to bed and just help him in that regard, but he does a great job.”
Protecting Morton will be crucial in 2024. However, there are questions about the Red Raiders’ offensive line entering the season. Fortunately, Morton said he has seen improvement in that group.
“Coach Clay McGuire has done a great job this camp,” he said, “even in the spring he’s trained the guys the way he wants them to play. And it’s been nice. I was actually able to get in yesterday, we were in a competitive phase and I got my 4th and 5th progression three or four times and I hadn’t been able to do that in a long time. So you know the ability to get the 4th and 5th progression by throwing the deep post over to (Caleb Douglas) was one of our key things and up front they did a great job.”
It’s always fun to get a player’s opinion on the guys who are at home on the other side of the ball. Morton named a few defensive backs that have particularly caught his eye so far.
“All right,” Morton said. “They’re doing a really good job. They’re disguising, they’re getting really good at defense, Coach DeRyuter’s defense. He has about 100 calls for every play and so they’re getting really good at disguising plays.”
“So you know (Braylon) Lux is really good. Mo Horn is fantastic. CJ Baskerville at safety is great too. Then the linebackers do a really good job of showing blitz early and they do a good job of controlling us too. When I control the play at the line, they do a good job of controlling me too, so you know we keep each other on our toes.”
