Morris: More than ready

When James Morris pledged to play college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes he was barely 16 years old.

The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder already had a pretty great football resume. He had just come off helping Solon High School to the Class 2A state football title. He rushed for 1,900 yards and 32 touchdowns. He was an all-state pick.

But he was only 16. That raised some eyebrows. Even Morris, a lifelong Hawkeyes fan whose stepdad, Greg, has been the team's equipment manager for all of James' conscious life, could see that.

He could see it, but he didn't dare believe it. 

"As far as siding with people who think it's a risk? If that's how you want to put it, I'm a realist," Morris said. "I understand, you offer someone who's a sophomore, you're like, hey, take it easy. You never know if this kid isn't going to pan out or something.

"But I never felt that way about myself. If you feel that way about yourself, you're probably done. I guess I can understand. And as a Hawk fan, as somebody who likes the Hawks, if they were to get a commitment from a freshman and the kid didn't pan out, that wouldn't be good. But I never felt that way about myself. I always thought I deserved it."

Two years later, Solon has two more 2A state football championships and a 41-game winning streak. Morris was an all-stater and the Iowa Gatorade player of the year as a junior and senior. He rushed for 6,646 yards and scored at least 110 touchdowns, putting him among the state's top 10 in rushing and scoring. He also had 276 career tackles.

Former Iowa running backs coach Carl Jackson is retired, but still spends some time in the football complex. He told head coach Kirk Ferentz that Morris could be a running back at Iowa.

So, as it turns out, Ferentz knew what he was doing when he offered the Solon sophomore a scholarship. Of course, inside info helped.

"James had been in our camp. He's been in this building. We've known him a long time. I've known the Morris family basically since 1981," Ferentz said. "So I've known the family a long time. Certainly James, being in our camp, I think as much as anything, and just being around our coaching staff, he's a real mature young man. He's got his head on straight. We thought he was an excellent football player, but also just the other attributes.

"And I think he goes home, everything is kept in check. His ego is kept in check. He does a wonderful job with that. We felt pretty good about it. We were excited about everything we knew about him. I think after he came to camp, we saw how he competed with the older players, that really impressed us. So, we thought the risk was minimal. And I think we've seen nothing but improvement from him on the field. And we're awfully excited about his potential with us."

You want intangibles? Morris is in the National Honor Society and has a 3.95 GPA. He's interested in politics and law, but has medicine in the back of his mind, too.

"I wish there was more stuff I know that I didn't want to do," Morris said. "I like politics. I like medicine. Those are kind of the two things. There's a gray area between politics and law and then maybe in the back of my mind there's medicine."

When you commit to play football for the Iowa Hawkeyes when you're a sophomore, you're going to be somewhat of a target for your opponents. The Hawkeye is going to get everyone's best.

He gave a few examples. This shows, maybe more than a 3.95 GPA, a centered kid who has a dose of humility built in.

"If you're in a wrestling match, everyone hypes it up," Morris said. "If I don't pin the guy in 30 seconds, the guy is

 doing great against Iowa's next linebacker, or something like that. If I run a 100-meter dash against 10 kids who are 170 pounds and I get third or fourth, the guys who beat me are telling all their friends.

"I'm like, hey, there's not much I can do about it. I'm human."

He felt the target thing, but said it was never anything he couldn't handle.

"I always wanted to show people, but moreso the second I got it," Morris said. "It's just been a huge target on my back and I could feel it everywhere I could go.

"It didn't push me internally anymore, people knew and there was a little more of a target on your back maybe. Just a little more scrutinized as far as the things you do, but it was never bad. And it wasn't anything like I'm sure it's going to be next year."

Morris is one of four linebackers who signed Wednesday with the Hawkeyes. Austin Gray, Jim Poggi and Christian Kirksey will join Morris.

Iowa's linebackers depth chart is filled with seniors next season, but after that, the experience takes a quick dip to a group of unproven walk-ons and redshirt freshman Shane DiBona.

Expect one or maybe two of the new guys to play. Maybe one of those will be Morris.

"We'll have the discussion down the road possibly about are you going to be a special teams guy, a back-up guy, get your feet wet, and then we're going to have a lot of vacancies a year from now," Ferentz said. "So, I think he'll be in the thick of things. I think maybe all four of the linebackers we signed will have that opportunity."

Morris wants to play, but he also brought up the fact that former Iowa linebackers Abdul Hodge and Chad Greenway redshirted their freshmen seasons. They had to decide if mop-up and full-time special teams were enough to burn a season. They chose to redshirt.

During his visit, linebackers coach Darrell Wilson told Morris that he could be in a similar situation, pending on how he handles camp.

Bottomline, though, Morris said he'll do whatever is best for the team.

"I talked a lot on my official visit to my position coaches," Morris said. "I was pretty specific in the scenarios I predicted and where they see me fit in on the roster. There are a couple different things that could happen and both are based on basically how well I perform in camp. That will dictate what they do.

"My goal is to play as early and often as I can. That's everybody's goal. Not everyone will say that. Also, my goal is to help the team. However I can do that and still see reasonable time, I'm going to do it."

When it comes to the choice to redshirt or not, more often than not, it's the player's choice.

"Coaches said they're looking to play one if not two of the freshmen linebackers so, basically, they have someone who's been at game-speed for when the cupboard is proverbially bare, as outsiders would say," Morris said. "That's not how I like to think of it and that's not how the coaches like to think of it, but I'm a realist too and they need we need to get some depth."

Without question, Morris is uniquely prepared to step into an Iowa football uniform. Greg Morris has been around the program since the late '80s. Solon is just a few miles from Iowa City on Highway 1. 

Morris grew up inside the program. He knows what's coming, on the field and off. He's aware of how it ripples through the state when an Iowa football player runs into trouble with the law.

"I think I'm about as ready as you can be without every having really experienced it," he said. "I don't want to come across as heady, saying that. I'm a Hawk fan, so I certainly know how people feel when the Hawks do stupid stuff. I'm not looking to make anybody feel the way I do when that kind of stuff happens."

The topic of expectations with Morris was extremely interesting. This is where Iowa fans will fall for the kid.

He wants what exactly you want.

"I have my own expectations for the team and things I think they should do. They might even be higher than what fans think," Morris said. "I see the guys we have and how much work they put in. They're on the cusp right now on what is going to separate them from falling back to an 8-4 season or a 9-3 season versus breaking through and beating an Ohio State at the 'Shoe or beating an Ohio State at home and playing in the Rose Bowl.

"And then signing eight or nine four-star prospects and then doing it again the year after that. That's how that stuff happens. It's like that and it takes everyone buying in."

When you commit to a program as a sophomore, programs are going to take runs at you, even if your dad is the team's equipment manager.

Stanford offered a scholarship. USC and UCLA took runs.

"Things people said, No. 1, the education and, No. 2, the area," Morris said. "I would get stuff from California schools like Stanford and UCLA. You get to live in Los Angeles on someone else's dollar. That's stuff you hear a lot of.

"If you're getting stuff from Florida State, LSU or Alabama, they say you can be part of this great tradition. You might never play, but you get to be part of this great tradition. That kind of thing. Each school is different."

So, what was Iowa's pitch? This part is interesting.

"Whereas, Iowa's pitch is, hey, we're about football," Morris said. "We're going to do stuff right, you're going to make the team better and you're going to have a chance to play because we're about hard work. A lot of places they just didn't flat out come out and say that.

"Everybody was kind of trying to fancy themselves up, but Iowa just stuck to what they're good at, and I think that's why they get 'Iowa' type kids."

But wait, Morris isn't quite finished at Solon. In wrestling, he's undefeated and ranked No. 1 in 2A at 215 pounds.

"I'm trying to finish strong. End of my career, I'm going to do everything I can to get a state title," Morris said. "I might not do everything in the offseason, but I'm going to bust my (butt) to get that state title."

And then, finally, he can start what he started in 2007. He can turn his full attention to playing football at the University of Iowa.

"It's about time, isn't it?" he laughed.