Derek Morris Talks Winning UMass Kicking Job & More
New UMass kicker Derek Morris talks about why he chose to come to Amherst, his range and more.
It may not have received as much attention as the quarterback competition, but the kicking competition at UMass this training camp could end up proving to be decisive this fall.
Derek Morris, who transferred to UMass after one season at Cal, beat out senior Marcus Lye, who spent three years at Northern Arizona before transferring to Amherst this past season.
It was a bit of a windy process for Morris, who didn’t enter the Portal until late-December after converting 11 of 15 field goal attempts for the Bears as a freshman.
“I entered the Portal pretty late,” Morris told reporters earlier this week. “A lot of the schools had already picked up some guys. I entered pretty late just because of coaching staff complications at Cal.
Within a week of entering the Portal, he received a call from new UMass special teams coordinator Joe Castellitto.
“I was sitting in the car going to play pickleball with my mom and Cass hit me up,” Morris recalled. “It was some random number. I was like, 'Oh, this is from Massachusetts. Who's calling me?’
"I answered, talked to him for a good bit and we connected and three days after he called, I got up on an (official visit) and loved the staff here.”
Castellitto and head coach Joe Harasymiak played big roles in Morris’ decision.
“I'm a really big feel person,” he said. “It doesn't matter about money, scholarship, whatever. If I feel like I can be comfortable with the coaching staff here, like I am with Cass and Coach H, I feel like I can be really productive just because they have my back, which feels good.
“I thought it was just how welcoming and down to earth they are. Head coaches all across the country, some of them feel untouchable, but H is a dude that approaches me in the hallway randomly just for fun. Being able to have that type of relationship with him that I'm super comfortable and at ease really makes me feel good on the field.”
Morris was obviously excited to hear the kicking job was his, but said it wasn’t his primary focus.
“I really don't think of it as pressure or competition even, because when you kick, it's you versus yourself at the end of the day,” he said. “I kind of just focused on myself and worked on my craft and did what I needed to. At the end of the day, it worked out, so it was nice.
“Every day is a grind. I kind of have the mindset that anything can happen, so I kind of always am working and coming from being a walk-on at Berkeley, I always had the mindset that I've got to work to the spot that I'm getting to. I never want to be comfortable. I always want to be confident and keep going, but it felt good to hear it when he met with me.”
Morris said his range varies from 50-plus to 60-plus depending on the wind and he’s backed that up during practice viewing since the spring.
Of course, the key will be whether he can make those same kicks with game pressure on him. One thing the Dayton, Ohio native isn’t too worried about is weather.
“Growing up in Ohio, playing high school games in Ohio, I mean, we had games with 60 mile per hour winds,” he said. “I played in six snow games. So I've been through the ringer in that, so it's really not that big of a problem just because I grew up with it.”
Just as the coaching staff has made him feel at home, so has Amherst.
“It's basically like I'm back in the Midwest. It's a nicer Ohio. Ohio's pretty boring, not really much to do, but it was a big change coming from Berkeley over to here. It's like being back home. You get real snow, get the full seasons. I love fall, which is a plus. Being in this town, this is kind of the town that I grew up in Ohio, just kind of small suburban type with farms all around. So it feels like I'm back at home.”
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