Protégé and parent: Inside Chad Morris’s ‘embedded’ season at Virginia

Chad Morris before the game with Notre Dame Nov 4, 2023; Clemson, South Carolina, USA; at Memorial Stadium. | Ken Ruinard / USA Today Co / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesChad Morris was sitting on a Texas State bus, phone in hand, on a rainy night in 2024. He had just finished coaching a game, but his mind was in a driving rainstorm in Florida.

His son, Chandler, was playing for Virginia, his father says. He looked at his screen on his phone. In the stands in Florida, his wife, Paula, sat alone in the downpour.

"I remember sitting there going, ‘What am I doing?’" Morris said. "I’ve got a son having an incredible year. I’ve got a wife in a driving rainstorm, and I’m not there with her. At…