Chandler Morris QB Highlights | Meet UVA Football's New Quarterback

Matt Newton | 4 Hours Ago

Danny Wild-Imagn Images

Virginia is turning over a new leaf at the quarterback position heading into 2025. After playing the last two seasons with Tony Muskett and Anthony Colandrea as their top two quarterbacks, the Cavaliers are losing both players this offseason, as Muskett has exhausted his eligibility and Colandrea has transferred to UNLV after starting 17 games in his two seasons at UVA.

The cupboard wasn't left completely bare in the quarterback room. Virginia is returning former New Mexico State transfer Gavin Frakes and is bringing in a pair of promising true freshmen quarterbacks Bjorn Jurgensen and Cole Geer. But with none of those players likely to be ready to be the team's starter in 2025, Tony Elliott and company naturally wanted to improve their depth at the most important position on the field this offseason and more importantly, secure a transfer with some proven experience as a starter.

Check and check.

In a 24-hour span last week, Virginia landed transfer commitments from Nebraska quarterback Daniel Kaelin, a promising young QB who redshirted his only season in Lincoln and who comes to UVA with four years of eligibility remaining, and North Texas quarterback Chandler Morris, who has played in 32 games at three different schools over the last five years. Morris is expected to start for Virginia at quarterback in 2025.

In order to learn a little bit more about Virginia's new starting quarterback, let's go through his college career and take a look at some of his highlights.

Morris was a three-star quarterback coming out of high school in Highland Park, Texas, but he picked up offers from more than a dozen Power Conference programs and was initially committed to play for his father, Chad Morris, who was the head coach at Arkansas until November of 2019. Arkansas fired Morris and Chandler Morris subsequently decommitted, reopened his recruitment, and then committed to Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma over offers from Clemson, Auburn, Virginia Tech, SMU, TCU, USC, and others.

In his freshman season at Oklahoma in 2020, Morris was the third-string quarterback behind backup Tanner Mordecai - who wound up transferring to SMU and was supposed to face Virginia in the 2021 Fenway Bowl which was cancelled due to COVID-19 complications - and starter Spencer Rattler, who ended up getting drafted in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of South Carolina. Morris played four regular season games (and one bowl game) in his one season at Oklahoma and he attempted just five total passes, but he did have one shining moment in the 2020 Big 12 Championship Game against Iowa State, getting the Sooners on the board with a two-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter.

Morris entered the transfer portal after that 2020 season and transferred to TCU, where he spent the next three seasons, which were unfortunately riddled with injury troubles. Serving as the backup to Max Duggan, Morris played in just two of TCU's first eight games in 2021, but then an injury to Duggan resulted in Morris getting his first-career start against No. 12 Baylor. Morris delivered an incredible performance in his debut, completing 29 of 41 pass attempts (70.7%) for 461 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 70 yards and another touchdown on the ground. His 531 yards of total offense were the second-most in TCU program history and his 461 passing yards were third-most by a player in his first-career start in the history of the Big 12.

Unfortunately for Morris, that performance did not immediately spark greatness, as he started the next week's game against Oklahoma State, but went down with a season-ending injury. Max Duggan returned to the field and finished the 2021 season as the starter. Morris was named TCU's starter to begin the 2022 season, but again suffered a significant injury in the season-opener against Colorado, an injury that sidelined him for the next two months. Duggan took over and led the Horned Frogs on a magical season, qualifying for the College Football Playoff and reaching the National Championship Game. In 2023, Morris once again began the season as TCU's starter and started the first six games before suffering another injury. That season, Morris posted a 65.5% completion percentage, good for fourth-best in program history, and he closed his career at TCU first in program history with a 65.7% completion percentage.

Morris entered the transfer portal for a second time and transferred to North Texas, where he finally stayed healthy and delivered a fantastic 2024 campaign. He threw for 3,774 passing yards and 31 touchdowns to 12 interceptions and also rushed for 242 yards and four rushing touchdowns. Morris ranked fifth in the country in passing yards, third in completions, and fourth in passing touchdowns in the 2024 college football regular season. Watch some of his highlights from 2024 at North Texas below:

Looking to return to the Power Conference level for his final season of collegiate eligibility, Morris entered the transfer portal and ended up committing to Virginia. A familial connection helped make that transfer happen, as Tony Elliott coached with Chad Morris on Clemson's coaching staff from 2011-2014. Elliott ended up replacing Morris as Clemson's offensive coordinator when Morris left to take over as head coach at SMU and now, a full decade later, Elliott will coach his son Chandler Morris at Virginia.

Here's to a healthy and productive season for Chandler Morris at Virginia in 2025.

Keep track of all of UVA's transfer portal activity, including outgoing and incoming transfers, here: Virginia Football Transfer Portal Tracker

Stay up to date on all of the transfers who have received offers from Virginia or who have scheduled visits to UVA here: Tracking UVA Football's Offers and Visits in the Transfer Portal

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