Miami, Fla. — The way Behren Morton remembers it, he and his dad, James, were 30 minutes from a private workout at Baylor in the summer between his freshman and sophomore year when Clay McGuire, then the running back coach and West Texas area recruiter, called James with a proposition. 

McGuire was monitoring three young quarterbacks in the West Texas area that he believed would blossom into FBS prospects. Morton, who was at Eastland playing for his father, was one. The other two were Sawyer Robertson and Jacob Rodriguez. All three attended an earlier summer camp and it was Morton that impressed head coach Kliff Kingsbury the most. 

That’s why a few weeks later when the Red Raiders were holding a private workout to identify a couple of junior college defensive backs and needed a high school quarterback to throw routes against them, McGuire thought of Morton first. Despite the previous obligation in Waco, Morton didn’t need to think twice about where he wanted to be that day. “I said, “Dad, we’re going to Lubbock.'” 

He ended up being the only quarterback there, which allowed him to throw in front of Kingsbury for two hours. 

“Kliff came up to me after practice and said we might as well get the ball rolling on this process and offer right now because he’s going to be one of the best quarterbacks to come out of Texas,” McGuire remembered at media day two days before the Orange Bowl against Oregon. “He offered him that day and the rest is history.”

For Morton, it was the culmination of a lifelong dream. He spent the first 11 years of his life in Lubbock while his dad was a coach at Monterey High School. He was a kindergartener at Lake Ridge Methodist when he was assigned a “buddy” from the Texas Tech football team. The Red Raiders wanted to get into the community and this was a way for the players to connect with local kids.

Morton’s buddy was Graham Harrell, the starting quarterback for the Red Raiders. He’d come every other week or so and hang out with Morton, and that sparked the start of a dream that he’d eventually fulfilled over a decade later. 

“I knew right then that I wanted to be a Texas Tech Red Raider football player,” Morton said. “I wanted to be Graham Harrell. It’s been really cool to be the quarterback the year (Harrell) was inducted into the Ring of Honor, a full circle moment for me at this university.” 

Morton’s first dream wasn’t to play quarterback at Texas Tech, it was to play quarterback for his father. That wouldn’t prove as easy as it sounds, however. The family was at Eastland, James’ alma mater, by the time Morton reached ninth grade. 

James admits he was hard on his son, forcing him to earn snaps at every turn as to not look like favoritism. He kept Morton in the freshman locker room his entire ninth grade year despite playing varsity. And while the rest of the varsity practiced in the cool red helmets with the Eastland emblem on it, Morton practiced in a plain white helmet without the decal. 

It was clear to everyone else that Morton was the best quarterback at Eastland by the midway point of his freshman season, but he was only playing sparingly. He couldn’t figure out how to crack the starting lineup, so one day on the ride home from practice, he asked James what he needed to do to become the starting quarterback. James told him that he needed to see more physicality on his runs and that when they called the speed option, Morton needed to be able to “tuck it and go.” 

That Friday night in a game against Dublin, Eastland faced a fourth-and-four in a critical moment in the game. Morton was in at quarterback and James told the offensive coordinator to call the speed option. He’ll never forget the momentary silence that followed as his assistant coaches doubted whether that was the right call. Morton was a slender freshman quarterback with more arm talent than mass. 

James didn’t blink. And neither did Behren. He converted the fourth-and-four into a touchdown and lowered his shoulder into a defender in the process. 

“They were somewhat surprised that he had that in him but I wasn’t because I knew I had challenged him and that he was going to answer that call,” James said. “He proved a lot on that run. Not only to me, but to the rest of the staff and to his teammates.” 

James is a stereotypically tough, hard-nosed West Texas ball coach who was a former college fullback. He was inducted into the West Texas A&M Hall of Champions in 2009 and spent two years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He prided himself on being an overachiever who outworked everybody and knew his assignments and his teammates' assignments on every play.  

He says Behren is the opposite. Everything came easy for him and James just couldn’t grasp the fact that Behren could simply drop back and throw it to the open guy, so he made him sit on the back porch one night and learn all the formation signals. Even Behren’s mom, Suni, sat there and tried to learn all the formation signals and progressions as moral support. 

James isn’t sure how much of it stuck, though. The family lived out in the country and all he remembers is Behren spacing out and watching the deer and the doves while he was on the chalkboard trying to teach him the finer points of the offense. 

“That’s just the difference between an old fullback and a young quarterback,” James said. “I always call him a prima donna quarterback.” 

James also prided himself on being a tough guy who never came off the field during his playing days so when injuries started piling up for Behren at Texas Tech, he figured it was more of that prima donna coming out of his son. 

Behren wasn’t practicing all week but getting shot up to play in games during the 2024 season and James thought the issue was toughness. He was talking to then offensive coordinator Zach Kittley one day on campus and said that he hoped his kid could toughen up. Kittley, who is usually an easy-going guy, nearly grabbed James by the shirt. 

“He got real serious and was like, ‘Coach, I’m just going to tell you that your son is one tough MF,’” James recalled. “He said that he had never seen a kid play through that pain and I figured I should start giving him some more credit.” 

Credit is a hard thing for James to give. His days as a player and a coach have left him jaded to big moments. He’s always thinking about what is next and admits to focusing more on what could go wrong than what is going right. For that reason, it’s been hard for him to truly soak in the fact that his son is living a dream as the starting quarterback for a Texas Tech team that won its first Big 12 championship and is set to play in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff.

But that changed after the Big 12 Championship game when James and Behren met in the tunnel and shared a moment the two will never forget. 

“We hugged and had a real moment,” James said. “It was emotional and he thanked me for everything, and the tough dad cried. It was a special moment.” 

It meant everything to Behren, as well. 

“It’s been a fun journey with my dad,” he said. “I remember being the ball boy since I could walk and talk and then to get to play for him at his alma mater and then for him to retire and get to watch me play at Tech, it’s been a lifelong dream to get here and it’s been a lot of fun.”