Lee Morris Is Oklahoma's Unheralded TD Tycoon

It seems Sooner Nation is ecstatic about the talent Oklahoma has on the offensive side of the football—as they should be. CeeDee Lamb is a contender for the 2019 Biletnikoff Award. Grant Calcaterra had an unforgettable one-handed TD against Texas. Charleston Rambo provided a glimpse of hope against Alabama. Jadon Haselwood, Theo Wease, and Trejan Bridges are among the most talented incoming freshmen in the country (Austin Stogner was also one of the most highly coveted tight ends in the 2019 recruiting cycle); to say nothing of Mykel Jones (2016) and Jaquayln Crawford (2018), who were highly touted four star recruits in their respective cycles. Someone is missing though ... Oh yeah, the former walk-on, no-star recruit, Lee Morris.

17.6, 17.8, 15.6, 15.2, 17.2, and 21.8 ... Those are the average yards per catch in 2018 for every player at OU who caught more than 12 passes. Marquise "Hollywood" Brown, known for big plays and taking the top off defenses had 17.6 yards per catch (YPC). CeeDee Lamb, a big-play receiver in his own right, averaged 17.8 YPC. Carson Meier had 17.2 YPC, and Grant Calcaterra had 15.2 YPC. Leading the team (excluding Brayden Willis, who caught one pass for 29 yards) was Lee Morris, with 21.8 YPC. With only four more catches, he would have qualified for fifth in the nation in YPC—good for second in the Big 12 behind Hakeem Butler.

Getting yards in chunks is good, but scoring touchdowns is better. And Lee Morris catches touchdowns too. Morris caught eight touchdowns in 2018, good for third on the team behind CeeDee Lamb (11) and Marquise Brown (10). But the most impressive part of Morris' game lies in these numbers: 38 percent (Morris), 23.1 percent (Calcaterra), 21 percent (Meier) 16.9 percent (Lamb), and 13.3 percent (Brown). Those percentages represent the chance that each player finds the end zone any time they catch the ball. Morris' percentage jumps to 43.4 if you include 2017! Although he caught only two passes in 2017, both of them went for TDs. So it isn't really responsible to include that misleading statistic. But this is a hype piece and a shout out to Lee Morris, not a research paper, so 43.4 percent sounds good to me!

Morris could be on his way to the 2019 All-Big 12 team. He should have been a part of the 2018 team, but Grant Calcaterra was named to the first team along with Trevon Wesco from West Virginia, and Charlie Kolar of Iowa State was named to the second team. No disrespect to Calcaterra, Wesco, or Kolar, but Morris had more yards (457 compared to 396, 366, and 137, respectively) and touchdowns (ten to six, one, and three, respectively). If the conventional wisdom that young/inaccurate/uncomfortable/running (pick the adjective that fits your opinion of Jalen Hurts) quarterbacks look for big targets, then the (Should Have Been!) All-Big 12, 6'2" 212 pound receiver should continue to habitually find the end zone and find himself on the All-Conference Team for real in 2019.

All stats via sports-reference.com