Dave Doeren ‘surprised’ by MJ Morris opting to redshirt

Y’know, I’ve been doing this for a minute. Watching NC State sports, writing about them, et cetera. But I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a stranger week than this one. It’s just really weird to watch your starting quarterback say “I’m out” with three critical games left—including a big rivalry game. I mean, State’s ACC title game odds are like 1-in-a-million, but they aren’t zero. But here we are.

Dave Doeren read a statement Thursday that expressed his surprise about MJ Morris’ decision, and did his best not to throw him under the bus for this whole thing.

“As games progressed and time went on, MJ came to me and let me know that he was still thinking about preserving his redshirt. I was surprised by that because he was our starter. Really didn’t expect that, for a starting player to want to sit back down. He said he wasn’t sure which way to go, but he wanted me to know that that was something that he was thinking about and talking with his family about. After the fourth game, he was very decisive in telling me it was important to him and his family to preserve his redshirt. We’re honoring that decision.”

I’m pretty sure Dave is pissed, but it does nobody any good to go ranting in public about this—it doesn’t help this season, and recruits are always watching. Whole deal is shitty, and I’m mainly just upset on behalf of that locker room, but it’s not like the team is getting worse for the change at quarterback.

That’s what’s cosmically funny, and exhausting, about all of this drama to me—MJ Morris is not good. He hasn’t been good. If he were good then nobody feels like Brennan Armstrong needs to come in here and start this season.

Maybe he has that capability eventually, to be good at football, but he’s drawn an astounding amount of fretting and energy—and money!—over the last 12 months that just aren’t remotely warranted. If this is who he is, fine. If he wants to extract every last ounce of value while he has it, fine. That’s great, that’s his right.

But it’s a sorry tell that Morris, or rather the idiots in his ear, think he needs to stop playing to maintain some transfer value heading into the offseason. That’s embarrassing. And that’s what this is about, let’s not beat around it.

I can understand it, given that he spent an entire spring getting told how great he was by various SEC coaches trying to get him to transfer. Got a whole fancy truck out of all that tampering. Quitting mid-season means you have entirely lost the plot, though.

I appreciate Dave being kind on the matter, but I don’t have to be. I think about this and I picture like Marcus Stone or Harrison Beck going peace-out after throwing four interceptions two days prior, and this is comedy. It’s ludicrous. How is this a thing that we’re doing? Let’s get on with the guys who actually want to play football.