Stop Bashing Stephen Morris

With fall camp in full swing following the Hurricanes’ first full team scrimmage, now’s not a great time to look back, but this is something that’s been on my mind since the conclusion of last year. Recently on Twitter I’ve seen a revival of Stephen Morris bashing from ‘Canes fans—escalated by his rocky performance last night in the Jacksonville-Chicago preseason game—and it has finally pushed me to write this piece. I don’t want to publicly call out specific fans, but I can definitively say that I’m not creating a straw man. Look, I’m not saying that Stephen Morris was the greatest Miami Hurricane ever. I think even he would admit that he didn’t live up to his potential during his senior season and made some very poor decisions at times. But here’s the thing: he had a good season last year. Not elite, but very solid at the least. One of the things I’ve seen is that some fans seem to think that they had to “live through Stephen Morris” like it was some sort of hardship. Anyone who says that they “had to live through Stephen Morris” just has no idea how to evaluate a quarterback.

I grew up a fan of the Michigan Wolverines. Watch game tape of Steven Threet and Nick Sheridan and then tell me what it was like “to live through Stephen Morris.” I can’t believe I really have to defend him this strongly against many fans of the Hurricanes, but here we are.

8.8 YPA isn’t just good, it’s outstanding. That ranks 15th in all of FBS last season, better than guys like Braxton Miller. It’s within a yard of Johnny Manziel, and Teddy Bridgewater.

Let’s start with the most obvious caveat—he played on one ankle every game after he initially hurt it against Savannah State. Even though the coaches would talk about how the ankle was improving and he would never use it as an excuse, you could clearly see him limping around out there. Keeping this in mind, what he was able to do was incredible. Here are his 2013 numbers: 57.6% passes completed, 3,028 yards, 8.8 YPA (!!!!), 21 TDs, 12 interceptions.

I understand that his completion percentage was lower that we’d have liked it to be and 12 interceptions is too many. It’s undeniable that Stephen struggled with consistency and decision making. However, 8.8 yards per attempt. 8.8 YARDS PER ATTEMPT! It doesn’t take a math major to realize that on average, Miami picked up NEARLY AN ENTIRE FIRST DOWN every time Stephen threw a pass. 8.8 YPA isn’t just good, it’s outstanding. That ranks 15th in all of FBS last season, better than guys like Brett Hundley, Braxton Miller and Keith Price. It’s within a yard of Johnny Manziel, Marcus Mariotta, Blake Bortles, Tajh Boyd, Teddy Bridgewater, AJ McCarron and Aaron Murray. Most teams could only dream of trotting out a quarterback with that good of a number in the most important traditional statistic when measuring quarterback efficiency, but many Miami fans not only failed to appreciate that while Stephen was a ‘Cane, they continue to treat him like a reason last year’s team sputtered down the stretch. For the love of all that is secular and non-vulgar, he made undrafted Allen Freaking Hurns into one of Miami’s top five top single season receivers OF ALL TIME. (I don’t mean to demean Allen; he was great last year. But still.) Name another Miami quarterback who has helped an undrafted wide receiver pass 1,000 receiving yards in a season. I’ll wait. Here’s a hint: you can’t. Stephen put up gaudy numbers that fans fail to acknowledge despite…

• Missing nearly the entire game against Savannah State and much of the game against South Florida, where he could’ve padded his stats even more
• Losing his best deep threat, Phillip Dorsett, midway through the season
• Losing his running game midway through the Florida State game
• And—as I’ve covered already but am going to mention again because it feels just a little important—PLAYING ON ONE FOOT FOR NINE GAMES

According to the fantastic Football Outsiders FEI rankings, Miami had the 12th-best offense in the entire FBS last year. As great as Duke Johnson is, seven-and-a-half games of him as the feature back can’t get you that high by itself. Maybe quarterback play had a little something to do with it?

Name another Miami quarterback who has helped an undrafted wide receiver pass 1,000 receiving yards in a season. I’ll wait. Here’s a hint: you can’t.

You can reject everything I just said if you really want to.

After all, I’m just a random blogger guy; what do I know? But here’s the main point of all this: whatever your thoughts are on Stephen (then again, if you really still think he was so awful after reading this, I can’t help you), it’s well past time to LET THEM GO. He’s currently competing for a roster spot in the NFL. So get over whatever unfair resentment you may harbor towards the guy for not living up to your insane standards last year.

Don’t make me put on profuse amounts of eyeliner, hide under a bed sheet and sob, “LEAVE STEPHEN ALONE!” If you still think Stephen Morris was Miami’s problem last year and Jake Heaps is going to be a significant step up this year, have fun on Labor Day. As the saying goes, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Many Miami fans are going to learn that the hard way this year.