Behren Morton showed a lot of enthusiasm during the Texas Tech football spring game, encouraging his teammates and hungry for victory. This was like any other Saturday.
But the Red Raiders' quarterback led from the sideline, becoming one of two captains not to play, along with running back Taj Brooks.
The technical staff shut down Morton for the final three weeks of spring football as he continues to rehabilitate a Grade 3 AC joint sprain in his right shoulder.
But Tech coach Joey McGuire remained optimistic that his starting quarterback will be ready in August.
“He'll say it's OK to go to the game today,” McGuire said at the Sports Performance Center after the game. “We have great plans with the doctors and different people, and we have experts coming in to see how the rehabilitation and things like that are going.”
Morton last scrimmaged on March 29 and missed the final nine of his allotted 15 spring practice sessions.
“Maybe after the second or third day of rest, he'll say the pain is gone,” McGuire said. “He literally asked the doctor, 'Hey, so am I okay (to play) in the spring game?'”
“We feel really good about where we are. This world we live in, if we weren't, we'd probably be looking into the (NCAA transfer) portal and stuff like that. We feel really good about the quarterback room. is” . ”
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On Saturday, sophomore Cameran Brown and first-year freshman Will Hammond each threw two touchdown passes, and redshirt freshman Jake Strong threw one. McGwire said Brown will be the team's top backup if there is an actual game next week, in part because the transfer from West Georgia brings a different dimension as a 6-foot-2, 230-pound running threat. He said that it has become.
Morton injured his throwing shoulder on September 23 at West Virginia. He played most of the remainder of the season, missing only the second half of the October 14 game against Kansas State and the entire October 21 game against Brigham Young.
Strong replaced Morton during that stretch. He threw two touchdown passes and rushed for 54 yards, but was intercepted six times.
“Most of his bad plays were in the middle of the field, beyond the level of the linebackers, chipped balls that ended up being interceptions,” McGuire said. “So he's starting to see it (this is an emphasis in the offseason) better and better.”
