This is a summer of enlightenment for BYU receiver Michael Morris.
After a voluntary workout on Monday, minutes after doing wind sprints supervised by Cougar conditioning coach Jay Omer, Morris sat in the shade, sweat covering his face, yet his eyes sort of shined, kind of smiled in their own self-lit way.
Glad he's out of the humidity and heat of his hometown of Shannon, Miss., Morris is a new man — literally.
It's not that his rehab from foot surgery has left him nearly 90 percent of his former self.
It's not that he really believes he can run a 4.4 time in the 40 — if he was having one of his good days.
It's not that, at times, in a straight sprint, he feels the old explosion from his legs. This, after he had a foot surgically repaired last fall after he went down to injury just minutes into the first two-a-day session of the 2004 season last August.
It's not that he's making a little noise with his teammates this summer as they get together and play a little throw and catch.
And it's not that he is nearly at the end of the road, after a painful and emotionally frustrating year in which he stood on the sidelines while his teammates played the likes of Notre Dame and USC.
No, Michael Morris made a very emotional discovery this summer, one that changed his outlook on life.
Morris, 23, found out the identity of his father, who died when he was three years old. Michael had never met his father, and his identity was kept secret from him all his life. At the same time this summer, Michael found out he had three older brothers — Danny, Eddie and Stacy — all from this same small Mississippi town.
"It makes me feel more complete," Morris said. "I feel I can go out there and hold my head high."
Morris knows who his mother is, but the only mother he's ever known is his aunt, his birth mother's sister, who took him in and raised him since infancy. Her name is Vanessa Townsend. "She is my hero, my mom, and I tell her she's my hero every day. She is everything to me and has inspired me in everything I've done."
Shortly after his birth, he was nearly put up for adoption before Townsend stepped in and said she would take him in.
All his life, he's lived under suspicion of rumors of who his kin was and who exactly was his father. He'd been told two different stories, but never the truth. Nobody ever confided in him until this summer, when an uncle told him he needed to go talk to his grandmother and ask her about a man who shared many physical traits. It solved a 23-year-old mystery.
It stitched together something in his heart.
"Even though football isn't going the way you expect it to and you're hurt, there is strength in knowing there is family, they are there, and I've found that out about myself. It makes all the difference in my life. I look at things differently; it's hard to explain, really."
His newfound brothers all knew the story, but they never told Michael. These are men he knew in Shannon for years.
"I think I'm going to be OK," Morris said. "I am excited. I now need to go out and go forward with my life. Most of my life, I didn't want to know. I was stubborn. But it began to eat me up and I had to know."
Now back to the task at hand.
Come August, Morris is expected to compete for a place at the Z receiver spot along with Joe Griffin, Zac Collie, Luke Ashworth and Matt Allen. Depending on that competition, one or two more bodies could be moved over to compete for the X receiver spot behind Todd Watkins, Brett Cooper and Michael Reed. It is unlikely he would be used as an H-back receiver where Bryce Mahuika, Nate Meikle, Breyon Jones and Saia Hafoka are vying for spots.
BYU trainer Kevin Morris says he is encouraged by the progress of Cougar wounded, like Morris. He declared Watkins back to his old self and Morris close behind. Other potential starters, including OL Jake Kuresa (shoulder), LB Justin Luettgerodt (knee), and TE Phil Niu, are working out now.
"My straightaway speed is still there," Morris said.
Although trainers and doctors advised him not to run the 40 for time when others did so in June, he says he can still go 4.4 and "get you still."
But Morris says his ability to shift and cut is slowly thawing out after surgery. "It's going east and west that I've got a problem. Some days I feel it, but some days I don't. My mind says 'do it,' and my body doesn't react the way it used to. It will come."
Morris describes last fall, after the freak injury, the most frustrating time in his life.
Then came this summer.
Michael Morris has a whole new outlook on life. It's a whole new season.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com