Morris-Brash Adds Talent to the Defensive Ends, Helps Defense on the Rise

UCF’s defensive end unit has another player to utilize now that Morris-Brash is playing great football.

Andrew Johnson | Nov 1, 2021

ORLANDO - UCF defensive end Tre’mon Morris-Brash brought the pressure for the Knights against Temple on Saturday, finishing with his first full sack of the season. Against Memphis a week earlier, he earned a half sack.

Paired with fellow Knights defensive ends Josh Celiscar and Big Kat Bryant as pass rushers that can be counted upon. That group is helping a UCF defense that’s playing really good football of late.

Before defining what he’s done lately for the Knights, here’s the background for the junior.

Prior to coming to Orlando to play for UCF, Morris-Brash was a four-star recruit by ESPN and played for St. John's College High in Washington, D.C. He committed to UCF over Power Five schools such as Florida, Georgia, LSU and others.

Morris-Brash finished his senior year with a total of 15 sacks and forced five fumbles while playing alongside his current teammate, defensive tackle Cam Goode. Morris-Brash earned the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference defensive player of the year award and the defensive player of the Year for the District of Columbia by USA Today.

As a sophomore for UCF in 2020, he appeared in all 10 games, starting four times at defensive end, totaling 26 tackles with 19 solo stops during the season. He added six tackles for loss and was second on the team with 3.5 sacks, along with one quarterback hurry and a fumble recovery.

In 2019 as a freshman, he was quite similar, playing in all 13 games as a defensive end. Morris-Brash recorded 25 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, three sacks, three quarterback hurries, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Moving to this season, he missed the first two contests for disciplinary reasons, but he’s consistently improved and come on strong during the past two games.

Morris-Brash is one of the most explosive athletes on the UCF roster. Now that he’s found his groove along the defensive front, the Knights possess a really good trio of defensive ends to attack signal callers the rest of the 2021 season, beginning with whichever quarterback Tulane starts versus the Knights.

Tre'mon Morris-Brash (#33), Defensive End, UCF / Brian Smith, Inside The Knights

Tulane starting quarterback Michael Pratt missed this past Saturday’s game while in concussion protocol, so his status for next Saturday is uncertain.

Regardless of the signal caller that runs onto the gridiron at the Bounce House, that particular Tulane quarterback will now certainly be facing a three-headed-monster with Celiscar, Bryant and Morris-Brash coming after him off the edge.

Studying the statistics more closely, the junior defensive end had his best game of the season during UCF’s game against the University of Memphis, finishing with four total tackles, the aforementioned half a sack, and assisted on a tackle for loss. In six games this season, Morris-Brash recorded eight tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one pass breakup, and one interception.

Morris-Brash is playing better for a defensive unit that had its moments during the early portion of the 2021 schedule, like the second half against Boise State, but struggled against Louisville and Navy, games three and four of the 2021 season. With more healthy bodies coming back to the lineup such as Ricky Barber at defensive tackle, a secondary that’s played tremendous football the past two games, plus Morris-Brash playing well within the defensive end rotation, the Knights’ defense ascended to new heights.

UCF allowed seven points to Memphis, and just seven points to Temple. Morris-Brash is a part of the defensive end group that helped stop those offenses from scoring more than one touchdown. Whenever a team applies pressure to the opposing signal caller, the chances of turnovers and lost-yardage plays increase.

Morris-Brash, as well as Bryant and Celiscar, helped create much of the pressure that saw the Knights sack Temple quarterback D’Wan Mathis six times this past Saturday in Philadelphia. To place the sack totals in perspective, it took UCF five games to record its first six sacks of 2021.

Five games!

During the past two games, however, UCF sacked the quarterback 10 times. That’s an incredible transformation. It’s obvious that the pass rush helped to change how much teams can score against the Knights. The versatility of Morris-Brash is a big reason why, as he specifically can generate big plays for the Knights’ defense, much like his cohorts in Bryant and Celiscar.

Morris-Brash fits UCF’s 3-4 defense as an edge rusher or outside linebacker, and he can play defensive end in a 4-3 alignment. Morris-Brash also has good lateral movement for a player that’s 6’3” and 250 pounds. The defensive end that can limit the outside run and explode around offensive tackles.

It’s great to see Morris-Brash consistently producing big plays the past two games, and it will likely lead to offensive coordinators for UCF’s remaining opponents needing to add him to the growing list of UCF defenders to keep an eye on. This is a great development for the defensive end position, as well as the UCF defense as a whole.

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