Sonny Dykes delves into his history coaching quarterbacks, what he sees in Chandler Morris

TCU coach Sonny Dykes has been lucky to coach many talented quarterbacks in his day. Dykes has spent more than two decades on the Power 5 level at places such as Kentucky, Texas Tech, Arizona and California.

In that time, he has gotten the opportunity to work with quarterbacks such as Nick Foles, Jared Goff and plenty others. As he prepares for his inaugural season as the Horned Frogs coach, Dykes hopes to find similar success with quarterback Chandler Morris.

“I think that we’ve been lucky,” Dykes said in a recent interview.” Look, you can go back to my time when I cut my teeth as a GA at Kentucky. I was Mike Leach’s GA. Hal Mumme was the head coach. Tim Couch was our quarterback, became the first pick in the NFL Draft, and it went from there. You look at the quarterbacks we had at Texas Tech.

“I went to Arizona as an offensive coordinator, had Nick Foles, who went on to become Super Bowl MVP. Went to Louisiana Tech, had tremendous success with Colby Cameron, set 16 NCAA records. We just had a lot of guys. Then went to Cal, had Jared Goff, became the first pick in the draft at Cal. Been fortunate to be around good quarterbacks. We think we have had a hand in developing those guys. I think the good thing is coming to TCU we feel like we have some really talented guys in the room.”

Morris transferred to Fort Worth last offseason after spending the first year of his college career with Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. He appeared in just four games in 2021, finishing with 717 yards passing and three touchdowns. Even with last year’s starter Max Duggan returning, Morris finds himself in a battle to be the Horned Frogs’ starting quarterback in 2022.

Having got the chance to watch him in high school, Sonny Dykes believes Morris has the characteristics that he typically looks for in his quarterbacks. He opened up on what specifically intrigues him about the redshirt sophomore heading into 2022.

“I know Chandler well, had a chance to watch him play at Highland Park High School when I was at SMU,” Dykes said. “He comes from a football background that’s very similar to mine. His dad was a head coach, is kind of one of those kids that grew up hanging around the Fieldhouse, just one of those guys that loves the game.

“I think that when you go back and you talk to Randy Allen, who was his high school coach, Randy had nothing but great things to say about him. When I talked to Lincoln Riley about Chandler, Lincoln had nothing but great things to say about him. Everybody that dealt with him at Oklahoma said the same thing, he’s just a great kid, hardworking, loves the game. When you have talent and you have that passion and you have that football background, that lends itself to being very successful. We’re excited to see what he can do.”

TCU is set to open the 2022 season on Sept. 2 against Colorado.