SAN MARCOS, Texas – Chad Morris, a Texas High School Football Hall of Famer with more than 30 years of coaching experience, has been named Texas State's new wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator, head coach GJ Kinne announced on Wednesday.
 
Morris, who comes to Texas State after spending the 2023 season with Clemson as a special assistant to the head coach, has been a head coach in the state of Texas at the high school and collegiate levels as well as engineered some of college football's top offenses in the country.
 
"Coach Morris is a great offensive mind and coach but also a longtime mentor of mine," said Kinne. "He's a proven winner and a great developer of talent, proven by his double-digit NFL draft picks. Then you add in his knowledge of this state, his relationships with Texas high school coaches – which are as good as it gets – and his overall success here in Texas, proven by him being a Texas High School Football Hall of Famer, and it makes him an even better addition to our program. We're excited to have him as a Bobcat."
 
A native of Dallas, Morris was a legendary high school coach in the state of Texas for 16 years before breaking into the college ranks with Tulsa in 2010. Morris was the associate head coach and offensive coordinator for the Golden Hurricane that season and coached Kinne, who was the starting quarterback. The two helped lead Tulsa to a share of the Conference USA West Division title and a win in the Hawaii Bowl.
 
In between Tulsa and his head coaching stops, Morris was a national assistant coach of the year as Clemson's offensive coordinator from 2011 to 2014. He helped the Tigers go 41-11 over the four-year span as well as win the 2011 ACC Championship and make four bowl appearances, including two BCS Orange Bowl trips. Under Morris, the Tigers set more than 120 offensive team and individual records and posted the top three scoring seasons in school history. The Clemson offense produced eight NFL draft picks during Morris' time, including three wide receivers: DeAndre Hopkins, Sammy Watkins and Martavis Bryant.
 
In 2015, Morris was named the head coach at SMU. He turned the program around over his three-year tenure by inheriting a team that went 1-11 in 2013 to taking it to the program's first bowl bid in five years with a 7-5 record in 2017. The improvement was powered by an offense that went from 128th in the country in scoring offense the year prior to his arrival to eighth-best in the nation in 2017 (40.1 points per game). The 2017 Mustangs were just one of two FBS teams that season that featured a 3,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher and multiple 1,000-yard receivers.
 
Morris served as the head coach at Arkansas from 2018 to 2019 and was the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Auburn in 2020.
 
Over the last three years, Morris has worked at Allen (TX) High School (2021), USF (2022) and Clemson (2023).
 
As a high school coach, Morris cemented his legacy by helping Lake Travis High School win back-to-back undefeated state championships in 2008 and 2009. In 16 years, Morris led his teams to six Texas State Championship games, including three titles, earned coach of the year honors 11 times, and had a career record of 169-38 – including 32-0 in his final two seasons. He coached at Eustace, Elysian Fields, Bay City, Stephenville and Lake Travis.
 
He was inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in 2020.
 
Morris has previously worked with several current Texas State coaches, including associate head coach/special teams coordinator Daniel Da Prato (USF in 2022, Arkansas in 2019), Will Bryant (SMU in 2015-17, Arkansas in 2018-19, Auburn in 2020, Allen in 2021) and Kinne (Tulsa in 2010, SMU in 2017, Arkansas in 2018).