Pride of the Lions

Head football coach Guy Morriss is straightforward about football.

“Football has been my life. That’s all I’ve ever done, and I have a passion for it that drives me to coach,” he said. “I can’t cross the white line as a player anymore, so the next best thing is coaching. I don’t know what I would do were it not for football.”

As a young athlete, Morriss’ motivation for playing football was not the national exposure and big contracts. “We were expected to play in high school,” he said. “We had spring football and summer football and fall football- nothing but football. You would even go play football to get a break from work or chores. It’s just what you did.”

It’s that kind of tough but down-to-earth approach that defines Morriss’ strategy on and off the field. “Our strategy is to teach the players the simplest version of our offense and defensive schemes, and then feed it to them as rapidly as they can absorb it.”

Morriss knows that the first season will be a learning one for his team. “You have to have a system that’s easy to teach and easy to adjust, which I think ours is,” he said. “You fight through the learning process during the course of your first season and then come back your second season and it’s a night and day difference. It usually takes an entire season to get used to a new coaching philosophy.”

While Morriss admits that the building process will take some time, he knows his job is to put a quality product on the field. “You’re always trying to win, don’t get me wrong,” he said with a smile. “That’s always first and foremost.”