Morris evolves from walk-on to touchdown machine

NORMAN — On an Oklahoma team that features predestined pass catchers like Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb, Lee Morris was once a receiver without good hands.

“I actually tried to get him to switch positions,” said Tom Westerberg, Morris’ former coach at Allen High School in north Texas.

That was before Morris’ senior year at Allen — before he walked-on at Oklahoma, before he was eventually placed on scholarship and before he compiled a catch-to-touch-down ratio the likes of which Sooner coach Lincoln Riley has never seen.

The redshirt junior has scored eight touchdowns on 12 career catches. Last season he had two catches for two touchdowns. This year, his six touchdown receptions rank 21st nationally.

Morris is the only receiver in the country with that many touchdowns on as few as 10 catches.

“The only time I've seen it was in the pros with the former great Cris Carter when they called him the Touchdown Maker,” his dad, Lee Morris Jr., said.

Former Philadelphia Eagles coach Buddy Ryan had a famous quote when he cut Carter, now a Hall of Famer, before the 1990 season for off-the-field issues: “All he does is catch touchdowns,” Ryan said.

All Lee Morris does is catch touchdowns.

“Yeah, somebody needs to throw it to him

more,” Riley said with a smile.

The connection between OU quarterback Kyler Murray and Morris developed when they were teammates at Allen High School, just not as soon as it would seem.

While Murray led Allen to three consecutive state championships and undefeated seasons from 2012-14, Morris didn’t make the fulltime varsity squad until his senior season.

Westerberg, who now coaches at Barbers Hill High School east of Houston, wanted to move Morris from wide receiver to tight end. But the now 6-foot-2 and 212-pound Morris was still hoping to play college football, and he knew he wasn’t big enough to play tight end at that level.

So in the spring following his junior year,

Morris spent hours on the Jugs machine to improve his hands.

He’d have someone stay with him and feed the machine, and he wouldn’t come home until his mom called and told him to.

“He caught thousands of footballs,” Allen defensive coordinator Cory Cain said. “Literally every day after practice he went and got extra work on the Jugs."

The work led to a breakout season.

Morris had 34 receptions for 694 yards and 11 touchdowns in his senior year.

“His wasn’t just a God-given talent,” Westerberg said. “He had to work to get to where he is.”

Because Morris was such a late bloomer, his Division-I scholarship offers were limited to North Texas, SMU and New Mexico State. But like his father, who lettered for the Sooners in 1985 and 1986, Morris chose to walk-on at Oklahoma.

His dad sees shades of himself in his son, but admits that Lee is bigger, faster and stronger.

He never doubted his son’s ability to develop into a polished receiver.

He worked with Lee, teaching him how to position his thumbs on a high pass, and reminding him to point his pinkie fingers down and together on a low pass.

“Lee won't back down from anybody,” his dad said. “He'll fight. He might not win them all, but he'll fight to the end.”

After recording just two receptions in his first two seasons, Morris is third on the team this year with 241 receiving yards.

He was placed on scholarship the Monday following OU’s seasonopening win against Florida Atlantic, a game in which he had a highlight 65-yard, tacklebreaking score.

Though Brown and Lamb have more than doubled him in catches, Morris trails them by only one touchdown.

“What he’s doing right now is not normal,” Murray said.

And it’s not easy to explain how.

“I guess it’s the looks we’re getting,” Murray said. “He knows how to find the soft spot in the zone.”

Morris neither seems overwhelmed by his success nor surprised that 67 percent of his catches have resulted in six points.

He credited Riley’s play calling and Murray’s precision. The rest seems simple enough.

“I expect to score any chance I get the ball,” he said.