Just over one year into his tenure as head coach of the Allen Eagles, Chad Morris resigned his post Friday morning, the day after the Eagles wrapped up spring football. 

Why didn’t things work for Morris in his return to the high school game is the question that many will ask. The biggest reason has nothing to do with Allen or Texas High School Football, it has to do with his departure from Arkansas back in November 2019. Reports are the terms of the buyout involved an off-set, where Arkansas would pay Coach Morris the remaining value of his contract minus the difference of pay from a current employer. It’s possible the terms of the buyout dictate that Coach Morris must try and seek a job in the college ranks to maximize his income and minimize as much as possible the amount of money Arkansas has to pay in the buyout.

It's not unreasonable to believe that working at the high school ranks, even at a job as big as Allen (where Morris made over 141k in 2021) did not satisfy the terms of the buy-out and that Coach Morris can’t fully commit to a return to a college job, while running the Allen program. 

Another reason for the departure could simply be turnover in the Allen football program with coaches leaving, after over a decade of relative success and stability in Allen under Tom Westerberg and Terry Gambill, Allen brought in a large number of new coaches for the 2021 season and several of those assistant coaches have left and found new jobs this offseason. That lack of stability combined with Allen having (by their standards) a “down” year at 11-3 could have contributed to the move. 

Finally, it’s plausible to think Chad Morris simply wasn’t that happy being back in Texas High School Football, a lot has changed in the game since Morris last coached a high school game at Lake Travis in 2009. Coach Morris may have through the course of the 2021 season come to terms with the fact that the game wasn’t the same as when he left and maybe he simply didn’t enjoy coaching high school football as much as he enjoyed the college game at this point in his career. 

For whatever it’s worth, this much we do know, Chad Morris has probably coached his last game at the high school level and Allen is left to try and scramble in May to find another head coach before the 2022 season gets going.