NICK MORRIS: The Dark Side

You try to catch his attention after a long day of practice. You yell to him, "Nick," but there's no response. You try again, "Nick Morris," but still no acknowledgment. Then you hear someone behind you yell, "Hey Luke Skywalker," and he instantly turns around. During his two-year varsity football career at Penn, Nick Morris has played so many different roles, most of the time time he did not even know who he was. But now, the once highly recruited quarterback has settled into his starting strong safety position. The defense, which wears dark uniforms during practice, has brought Morris over to the Dark Side. "It's a lot nicer," he says of playing everyday. "It was fun, but it was a little bit of a struggle not knowing whether I was going to get into the game. Now that I have a position, I have the security to know that I'm going to play a full game." Even though Morris now has a permanent position, that still does not mean he is going to play every down. This fact has been made all too apparent as he has suffered through an injury-riddled career. After earning Freshman Most Valuable Player honors while playing quarterback, he hurt his ankle in the last game of the season, forcing him to forego trying out for the baseball team. Then he red-shirted his sophomore year after tearing the tendons in the middle finger of his throwing hand. And although he didn't feel comfortable throwing the ball last season because he could not put pressure on his finger, he still was the Quakers' returning passing leader this fall. But last year, when he did take the snaps, more often than not, he took off running with the pigskin. "I always liked to run," Morris says. "I just didn't have confidence in my throwing ability. But I had confidence in my legs and that I could hit somebody." His desire to hit convinced defensive coordinator Mike Toop to woo Morris to defense when starting free safety Sheldon Philip-Guide broke his arm last season. "Most people don't realize that we basically took an offensive player and taught him the free safety position," Toop says. "That's a tremendous feat, but he was able to do that." And as the season progressed, the move looked better every week. Morris is a devastating hitter. And although he had difficulty adjusting to his new position, he still made some of the biggest plays of the year. In the final game, with an undefeated season hanging in the balance and down by 14 points at halftime, Morris stepped into the spotlight. On a pass intended for Cornell wide receiver Erik Bjerke, Morris snagged the interception and ignited a previously dormant Penn offense. "Nick made a hell of a play on that ball," then-Penn quarterback Jim McGeehan said. "He stepped up and made the biggest play of the year." Morris then found a way to top that play. With the Big Red marching for the winning touchdown late in the contest, he dragged down Cornell tailback Pete Fitzpatrick two yards short of the first-down marker on a key third down. These are the types of hits Morris always seems to deliver -- just ask senior cornerback Jamie Daniels, who felt his wrath earlier this season. "I should have got it still. But Nick is a great hitter, and he proved it on that play," Daniels said after trying to hold onto an interception when he was leveled by Morris. "I just thought about going after the ball," Morris says now. "I didn't even realize what was going on. I just ran into him. One thing I want to do is be more physical." This craving to hit was one of the reasons Morris moved to the defensive side of the ball. As a quarterback, he got sick of being a target for offensive linemen. As a wide receiver, he grew tiresome of being the prize possession of defensive backs. But as the strong safety for the undefeated, defending Ivy League champion Pennsylvania Quakers, he now gets to deliver the hits. The crunches. The devastating blows. The crushes. This is the mind set of a defender. This is the thinking of someone who has switched to the Dark Side.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.