Behren Morton shakes off injury concern, goes the distance vs. Houston

Speculation hovered over the Texas Tech football program all week about whether Behren Morton would play at all against Houston, let alone how much.

Tech's starting quarterback, having not thrown in practice this week because of a sore shoulder, played the entire game Saturday in a 49-28 home victory. In a 20-13 loss the week before at West Virginia, the third-year sophomore landed hard on the shoulder at the end of a tackle.

Jake Strong, a second-semester freshman, prepped with the first team, just in case.

"Those (medical staffers) did a great job treating Behren, getting him in a good position to play," Tech coach Joey McGuire said. "He got to throw a little bit in the training room as he got his range of motion back. He got in the pool and did a bunch of different stuff."

Morton threw for 161 yards and two touchdowns on 14-for-22 passing. Forget caution. He dove at the end of a run, his upper body hitting the ground first. He got out in front of Tahj Brooks on a running play and threw a hard block on 225-pound linebacker Jamal Morris.

The Red Raiders didn't need Morton to be outstanding, because Brooks and Cam'Ron Valdez each ran for 106 yards, scored three touchdowns between them, and special teams chipped in with two touchdowns. Brooks has topped 100 yards three games in a row.

Tech already was down a starting quarterback. Tyler Shough suffered a broken fibula in the West Virginia game and underwent surgery. He's expected to miss at least six to eight weeks.

"Going into this week, it was really tough," Morton said, "because Tyler's the leader of this team. I really reverted back to what he's taught me, everything I've learned from him."

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Morton apparently never doubted he could be ready to play.

"I knew there was going to be a lot of mental stuff to do," he said. "I knew there was going to be a lot of treatment. I knew there was going to be a lot of different other things, but we did a good job with the game plan. We did a good job with everything we had going into this week. There was never a hesitation in my mind that this week was going to be different."

A source told the Avalanche-Journal that Strong took all the first-team snaps in practice this past week. He wound up not playing.

McGuire said he'd hoped to get Strong into the game.

"He had a really good week and allowed us to keep our timing with everybody," McGuire said, "but I didn't have any doubt about Behren."

McGuire said he wanted to save Morton's throws for when it counted. Throwing during practice, he said, "would have taxed his arm more and more throughout the week."

McGuire said Morton was "out there moving around" and helping Strong. The Tech staff also had Morton working on mechanics because, McGuire said, he exhibited poor footwork in the West Virginia game.

"He missed some throws, because he was throwing more arm than feet," McGuire said, "so he was able to (work on) that, be behind and really help Jake and the rest of our offense because the quarterbacks do so much. My thought was, if we didn't have to throw him, if we felt good about him coming into this game, then it was better than going out there (in practice) and trying to really stress his arm."

Morton connected with Loic Fouonji on a 25-yard touchdown and with Myles Price for an 11-yard TD. Price has TD catches in four of the first five games.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Behren Morton shakes off injury concern, goes the distance vs. Houston