You’ve probably never heard of Eric Morris, the University of North Texas football coach, but you likely know his work.
He coached a walk-on named Baker Mayfield, who dominated in college, won the Heisman Trophy, and now quarterbacks the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
He helped to turn a baseball player named Patrick Mahomes into a record-breaking college star who now slings the football for the Kansas City Chiefs.
He discovered a zero-star recruit named Cam Ward and developed him into the No. 1 draft pick in the NFL draft. He is now the quarterback for the Tennessee Titans.
His latest project, Drew Mestemaker, is setting records at the University of North Texas even though he didn’t start a single game in high school.
Morris knows how to take unheralded football prospects and mold them into top-tier quarterbacks.
More than that, he has an eye for talent and looks for quarterback prospects who can process action faster than others. Once they come under his tutelage, he breaks down situations for them so they can quickly see what is happening on the field.
He develops a player’s mental acuity to see the field, process defensive schemes, and adapt under pressure.
Morris does this by running plays in practice and then asking his quarterbacks to explain why things happened the way they did. He encourages them to see how all the pieces fit together and their role in seeing that picture faster.
He believes that taking situations apart and examining every detail helps his quarterbacks to develop a “football brain,” the ability to process fast, decide fast, and execute with confidence.
By seeing the big picture quickly, he asks players to anticipate windows of opportunity and not to wait for them to appear.
This applies to more than football.
Good leaders and coaches in every field break situations apart and make them easier to see and visualize.
By asking team members why a situation, meeting, discussion, or presentation unfolded the way it did (rather than why it was successful or not), leaders build the skill to see the elements at play and how changing them might affect the outcome.
Examining what makes for effectiveness is not the same thing as quickly seeing all the moving parts and how they fit together. It is the precursor to effectiveness.
Rather than focusing on one action, the most masterful performers learn to quickly visualize all the pieces and how they come together. Then they execute the action that will make the difference.
This big-picture thinking is developed from dissecting many situations with two simple questions: “What is happening?” and “Why?”
Coach Morris is able to do this with mentally agile quarterbacks to make them top-of-class. Leaders can do this with any team member to elevate their skills and make them more successful.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
