Former NC State quarterback MJ Morris, who recently announced his commitment to Maryland, says he was not promised the starting job by Terps head coach Michael Locksley during the recruitment process and is excited to compete for the position ahead of the 2024 season.
Four-year starter Taulia Tagovailoa doesn’t have any eligibility remaining, but redshirt sophomore Billy Edwards Jr. and redshirt freshman Cam Edge are slated to return. Edwards has played in 14 games the past two years, throwing for 315 yards, running for 177 yards and totaling 14 touchdowns. Edge threw three passes against Towson on Sept. 2.
Morris was a consensus four-star prospect out of Carrollton, Ga., as part of the Class of 2022. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound quarterback played in nine games for the Wolfpack the past two seasons, completing 57.8 percent of his throws for 1,367 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also ran 81 times for 103 yards.
Even though he is the most experienced passer among the three, Morris isn’t expecting anything to be given to him.
“Coach Locksley didn’t promise me anything,” Morris said on Glenn Clark Radio Dec. 15. “He said I’m going to have to come in and compete and earn it. That’s with anywhere. LSU said the same thing, you’ll have to come in and compete. That’s just my mindset wherever I go. Wherever I go, I’m just a competitor at heart. I’ve been that way since my dad put me in football at 4 years old, having me play against 6- and 7-year-olds. I’ve just always been a competitor.”
Whoever earns the starting job will have big shoes to fill. Tagovailoa has thrown for 11,256 yards and 76 touchdowns as a Terp, and each mark is easily tops in program history. The Big Ten considers Tagovailoa the top passer in conference history, though others beg to differ. Regardless, he is the best quarterback the program has produced in perhaps decades.
Quarterbacks are given a chance to sling the football around in Locksley’s offense. Entering the Music City Bowl, Tagovailoa had thrown 1,424 passes during four seasons in College Park (2020-2023), one of which was a COVID-shortened campaign. Morris said the chance to run Locksley’s offense was intriguing, calling Maryland “a perfect place to go to really learn how to play the position, to learn how to play in the NFL.”
“With Coach Locksley’s offense, we watched a little bit of the offense, some film when I was up there for the visit. I really did fall in love with it,” Morris explained. “He teaches it in terms of, ‘This is what you’re going to be doing when you get to the NFL. This is stuff that you need to learn how to do.’ I feel like I can learn this offense very quickly. I know it’s going to take me a little time, but once I get comfortable with it, I feel like I can really thrive in this offense.”
Morris comes to Maryland with three years of eligibility remaining after picking the Terps over LSU. He said he connected with Locksley and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis during his visit to College Park. Locksley and Gattis have worked with a number of notable quarterbacks beyond Tagovailoa, including his brother Tua.
“I would say the main thing that really attracted me was the people, the coaches,” Morris said. “When I was up there on the visit, I felt so comfortable around Coach Locksley and Coach Gattis. All the coaches who were with me on that visit, they really made me feel at home, like I was part of the team already — and that was my first time seeing them in person. We had some great conversations about football and just life in general, so that was really the main thing that attracted me to them.”
For more from Morris, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Gregg Forwerck/NC State Athletics