By ROBERT CESSNA
It took almost two decades, but Lake Travis head football coach Chad Morris went from cheering the Aggies to victory at Kyle Field to helping them win the season opener against New Mexico.
Morris was among those Texas A&M head coach Mike Sherman sought advice from in formulating the Aggies' no-huddle, fast-paced offense that got off 90 plays for 606 yards in the 41-6 victory over New Mexico.
"I loved it," said Morris, who graduated from A&M in 1992 and has become one of the state's brightest and most successful high school coaches. "I wasn't able to go, but I read about it, and heard all about the up-tempo approach. I'm really excited for the guys."
All Aggies seem to be excited about the new-look offense, which was a far cry from last season when A&M averaged only 65 plays and 341 yards per game. That was well below what everyone envisioned from Sherman's pro-style attack.
Sherman, though, could directly talk to his quarterback in the NFL. Last year, A&M's quarterbacks had his plays on wristbands. That proved cumbersome for a game plan that might entail 80 to 110 plays.
He decided in the offseason he needed to simplify the process to speed things up, yet keep the playbook.
"So the number of signals we required probably far exceeded most high schools," Sherman said. " So we just started working on it and trying to come up with how we were going to communicate from the sideline to the quarterback and the receivers."
He knew the foundation for the system was just a tape away.
"You just have to throw some high school teams on in the state of Texas and you see [the spread offense] on a regular basis," said Sherman, who was an excellent recruiter during his two stints as an assistant at A&M. "There's a lot of great high school coaches and I've seen them do it."
As luck would have it, Morris was one of the guest speakers at the Lone Star Coaches Clinic at Texas A&M in January. Morris has a great working relationship with A&M associate athletic director for football Tim Cassidy, himself a guru of recruiting. Morris talked to approximately 700 coaches about Lake Travis' spread offense, which had just helped the Cavaliers a second straight Class 4A state championship with Garrett Gilbert at quarterback, who is now a freshman at the University of Texas.
Sherman was impressed enough to ask Morris back to talk X's and O's with offensive coordinator Nolan Cromwell and quarterbacks coach Tom Rossley.
"Coach Sherman emphasized that I couldn't be paid by NCAA rules, but I was just happy to give something back to the university," said Morris, who as a student watched Sherman work as an offensive line coach in his first stint at A&M.
Morris was honored that a man who had coached many greats, including Brett Favre, wanted to pick his brain.
"It was a little intimidating, but I wanted to help any way I could," said Morris, who is 155-24 as a high school coach, including a state championship at Bay City in 2000.
One day the following week, Morris spent 5 1/2 hours with A&M's offensive staff, then another 45 minutes with just Sherman. Morris, who is in his second year at Lake Travis, came back during spring drills, then fall drills to watch A&M's offense evolve.
He didn't neglect his own duties, either.
"We ran 82 plays the other night against Cedar Park," said Morris of a 54-17 victory that pushed the team's winning streak to a state-best 33 straight. "A high school team that huddles averages only 50-55 plays a game."
He opened the season with a 55-31 victory over Westwood and a 42-21 victory over Austin Westlake.
Morris started running his current offense at Stephenville in 2004, learning from Guz Malzahn, who has quickly blossomed into one of the nation's top collegiate assistants.
Malzahn won a pair of state championships at Springdale High (Ark.) from 2001-05. He was offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas in 2006, where his running backs were Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. He spent the last two years at Tulsa, where his offense was ranked first in total offense in 2007 and then second last year.
Malzahn is at Auburn this year. The Tigers have played just Louisiana Tech and Mississippi State, but they're averaging 81 plays and 572.5 yards per game, which is fourth in the country behind Florida, A&M and Arkansas. Auburn last year averaged only 68 plays and 302.9 yards per game, which was 104th in the country.
The A&M players love the new-look offense.
"If you're in shape, I think it benefits us a lot," wide receiver Jeff Fuller said. "It wears on the [defensive back]. There were a few times where I lined up and I wasn't tired at all and the DB was gasping for air."
Senior offensive lineman Michael Shumard wasn't so sure this offense would make it at first.
"When we finally got it right, I was holding my breath and going over to the sidelines to grab a whole bunch of water, and that was only the first series," Shumard said. "I thought this was going to be a long year, but they did a great job of conditioning us and getting us ready for that. It really wore the other team down last week, and hopefully we can wear our opponents out like that consistently and it'll give us a great advantage."
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OL scrutiny: Shumard worked some at left tackle last week as A&M searches for its best five linemen and depth after returning junior Lucas Patterson to defensive tackle near the end of fall camp.
"This past week we practiced guys at different positions," Sherman said. "It afforded us an opportunity to create more depth and figure out what our best combinations would be."
Sherman said sophomore Danny Baker is still the starting left tackle.
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Punting OK: Transfer Ken Wood, a walk-on, averaged 43.5 yards on four punts in the opener including 38.5 net, which ranks 37th in the country.
"I thought it was serviceable, but not a winning effort necessarily," Sherman said. "I thought we did OK. ... I thought we lacked some consistency there in our hang times and directions. We have to be better there. We're going to continue to work with both punters, Ryan Epperson and Ken Wood this week, as we did last week, and we'll see who will be the starter. That will be a game-time decision."
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More freshmen likely to play: Sherman said freshman wide receiver Ryan Swope, who missed the opener for an injury, will play against Utah State.
Linebackers Aaron Aterburn and Michael Lamothe are other freshmen who could play, Aterburn likely on special teams. Stephen Barrera could see time at offensive right tackle.
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Judie may return punts: JC transfer Coryell Judie is returning punts in practice, but will need to keep progressing this week to do that in the game, Sherman said.
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Hall of Fame inductees: Former linebackers John Roper and Quentin Coryatt, quarterback Roddy Osborne and running back Greg Hill will be among those inducted into the Texas A&M Letterman's Association Hall of Fame at the 32nd Annual Burgess Banquet at 7 p.m. Friday at the Zone.
Winston Crite (basketball) and Bashir Ramzy (track) also will be inducted.
Tickets are $65. Call 846-3024 for more information.
Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
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