Chad Morris knew he was recruiting some good players in his 2019 class and it’s probably a good guess he figured on using them.
Starting five in the third game of the year, though, may have been stretching what even he thought. Learning the right way usually involves a couple of tries with the wrong way.
“You first talk about all the hair you’re losing when you put those guys in there,” Morris said, taking his cap off and smiling.
There wasn’t a whole lot of experience coming back, with the leading receiver last year transferring out of the program for whatever reason.
Both Treylon Burks and Trey Knox were going to see the field a lot early, but with injuries to Deon Stewart and Jordan Jones, they moved into starting roles.
Morris knew there was going to be some sort of learning curve.
“That comes with it, though,” he said. “They’re all going to make mistakes. We’ve got to understand that and know we’ve got to respond when those things happened and it happened today.”
It’s not just those two, although they have made the biggest splash because they make the obvious plays on offense.
Ricky Stromberg started and played both guard positions and outside of firing off too early (particularly on a fourth-and-inches play in the second half), he played well in pass blocking, not allowing a single pressure.
They are scattered throughout the defense, too.
Mataio Soli started at defensive end … with a broken hand that is wrapped up and looks like he’s walking around with a club like something out of Game of Thrones.
“Soli is starting and he’s making strides and making plays,” sage veteran McTelvin Agim said Saturday. “He’s getting after the quarterback and you can tell he’s chasing the quarterback out of the pocket.”
He’s also impressed he’s playing through the injury.
“I had my finger come out of my skin during my freshman year, but I wasn’t starting,” he said.
Zach Williams, Collin Clay and Greg Brooks, Jr., are also seeing significant time on the defensive side of things.
“They are getting off the ball, they’re ecstatic, they’re excited, they are trying to make things happen,” Agim said. “You can just tell that in the future, they’re going to be so great.”
Brooks is hanging in at the nickel spot in the secondary because it seems every time an opponent sees him in the game they start heading for him.
“He made some good plays,” Morris said. “He got out-leveraged a few times and they caught the slant up underneath him, but he’s a competitor and he just keeps improving, as they all do.”
Which is part of the process as Morris tries to get this team better every week.
You get the idea if he can hang onto his hair it’ll be a bonus.
