In good hands: Shough, Morton keep up the intensity in Tech quarterback competition

The competition to be starting quarterback on the Texas Tech football team has one less candidate but no less intensity than at this time a year ago.

Even with Donovan Smith having transferred to the University of Houston after last season, returnees Tyler Shough and Behren Morton aren't conceding the job to one another this spring.

"Really, it's crazy," Tech coach Joey McGuire said this week. "I think it's even more heated than last year because of two things: One, Tyler had such a great finish to the year. He has so much confidence. And he feels great. He's like 230 pounds, 232.

"And then last year in the spring, I don't know if Behren truly believed — because he hadn't done it for a full game or multiple games — that he was ready."

Today, McGuire went on, Morton is 217 pounds, up 14 pounds from the end of the 2022 season, a season in which he made his first college starts and showed flashes of being more than capable.

"And he has a lot of swagger," McGuire said. "He believes he could be the guy, and so I couldn't ask for anything more when it comes out of that room."

During a 2022 season in which both dealt with significant injuries, Shough finished with 1,304 passing yards, Morton with 1,117 and both with seven touchdown passes. Smith threw for 1,505 yards and 12 TDs.

Shough started the first game of last season and the last four. Smith started games two through five, and Morton started games six through nine.

Injuries brought about all the shuffling. Shough suffered a broken collarbone in September for the second year in a row. Smith suffered a shoulder injury while scoring a touchdown in the Sept. 24 game against Texas. When Smith was still feeling it a week later at Kansas State, coaches turned to Morton the week after that at Oklahoma State.

The Eastland graduate suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Oct. 8 game in Stillwater, then aggravated it in the Nov. 5 game at TCU. Shough reentered in Fort Worth and didn't give the job back the rest of the season. He led victories against Kansas, Iowa State and Oklahoma that got the Red Raiders to the postseason.

Then at the Texas Bowl, he passed for 242 yards and a touchdown and carried 25 times for 111 yards and two TDs in a 42-25 conquest of Mississippi.

Now Shough's stoked about what he can do his in his sixth year of college football.

"I feel more than a hundred percent," he said. "It's the first time in my career where I've been in the same offense two years in a row, so it's been kind of showing itself. I've been doing everything I can to keep mastering it.

"The connection we have with the wide receivers, the o-line, it's kind of next-level right now. We're just trying to keep getting better each day."

Whereas Shough gets high marks for knowing all the ins and outs of the offense and reading defenses, Morton says his priorities this off-season were getting better at reading defenses and operating the offense. Last year was only his second in college football.

"I think the big thing was (identifying) defenses and attacking cetain situations," Morton said, "because [offensive coordinator Zach] coach Kittley gives the keys to us so it's our job to get us in the right checks and the right calls. And so working that in the offseason has been huge for me, spending time in the film room when I can, out of class, and stuff like that.

"The biggest thing I've (improved) from last season to this season for sure is gaining knowledge of IDing defenses and stuff like that."

Morton dealt with the high-ankle sprain the remainder of the 2022 season after he suffered it midway through. With time, it's come around.

"It was an ongoing situation all the way throughout 'til January probably," he said. "It was kind of a day-by-day thing. Still to do this day, I go in there [the athletic training room] two or three times a week and still do rehab just to make sure it's strong and healthy for whenever the opportunity comes for me to play."

The Red Raiders wrap up spring football with the annual spring game at noon Saturday at PlainsCapital Park's Lowrey Field. Asked when he would name one the starter, McGuire said it could be next week or possibly June.

There's an expectation based on Shough's strong finish and experience edge that he's the man to beat. He's not taking it for granted, given what Morton showed in a month's time last season.

"He pushes me to be better every single day, what he can do with his arm," Shough said. "I think the biggest thing that he's grown with is his knowledge of the game and his mental maturity, understanding what we're trying to do."

Either way, the man making the decision says the Red Raiders are in good hands.

"I really feel that we have two NFL quarterbacks," McGuire said. "I think that both have the ability and will, health-wise, get to play on Sundays, so it's really good to have those guys.

"There's some other teams that have that, but our guys have won games. It's not just the potential of maybe a five-star or a guy that is really highly recruited. Both of our guys have won games, and so I'm excited about both of those guys."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: In good hands: Tyler Shough, Behren Morton keep up the intensity in Tech QB competition