Dylan Morris' QB Role Hasn't Changed at New School

The former Husky is now backing up a sophomore at James Madison.

Former Huskies quarterback Dylan Morris (5) heads for the field for the 2024 College Football Playoff national championship game in Houston. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

After traveling coast to coast -- some 2,750 miles from Seattle to Harrisonburg, Virginia -- Dylan Morris didn't really end up anywhere new to finish out his college football career.

Two games into the season, the former University of Washington quarterback finds himself serving as a back-up player for James Madison, maintaining a role he held with the Huskies for the past two years.

Morris plays behind sophomore quarterback Alonza Barnett III, who led the Dukes to a 30-7 victory over Charlotte on the road and a 13-6 win over Gardner-Webb at home, and, after a week off, now takes them into North Carolina to face the powerful ACC team on Saturday.

The 6-foot, 202-pound Morris sat out the first game, but played against Gardner-Webb, according to school records. He has no James Madison passing or rushing stats just yet.

After starting for two seasons for the UW -- even receiving All-Pac-12 honorable-mention accolades in 2020 -- Morris has had to deal with not being the No. 1 guy for going on three years now. He's played behind Michael Penix Jr. in Montlake and now Barnett, who largely was a James Madison sub in 2023, playing two games and starting just once.

A lot of people presumed Morris, with his Power 5 background would come into James Madison, an FBS school for just two years with a new coach in Bob Chesney, and take over at quarterback. However, the dual-threat Barnett beat him out and he has to be content with waiting to be called if needed.

“He’s an ultimate competitor,” Chesney said of Morris at Sun Belt Media Day. “He’s a professional in every sense of the word."

Morris brought passing stats of 305 completions in 503 attempts for 3,721 yards and 20 touchdowns with him from the UW, yet he's thrown just 14 and 16 balls over the past two seasons.

His last starting assignment came in 2021 at Colorado, in a 20-17 loss in Boulder that was pre-Deion Sanders. Morris largely was blamed for the UW's 4-8 record, hearing it every step of the way from unforgiving fans. It made no difference to the quarterback's critics that injuries dismantled that team, as well as the actions of ill-suited coach Jimmy Lake and offensive coordinator John Donovan, who were fired two-thirds of the way through the season.

“Through the 2021 season at Washington, it got pretty tough,” Morris told the Harrisonburg Daily-News Record. “I’d have to go in as a quarterback to have a strong face in the facility and be that leader.”

At the end of last season, then UW offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, now with the Seattle Seahawks, convinced Morris he needed to go elsewhere to play again, that it wasn't going to happen with the Huskies because Will Rogers was transferring in from Mississippi State.

Dylan Morris takes some pregame snaps from Landen Hatchett in 2023. / Skylar Lin Visuals

With Rogers committed to the UW last winter, and accompanying the Huskies to the national championship game against Michigan as a spectator, Morris did Zoom calls, toured James Madison and agreed to play for Chesney.

“Definitely been a fresh new start, just like a complete change of scenery across the country,” he said in spring ball.

For now, Morris waits for his name to be called. He's already helped Barnett out of one jam. Following a golf outing involving James Madison players, the starting quarterback was left with a flat tire on his car and Morris jumped in and helped him change it.

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