Matt Morton stands at six feet tall. What he lacks in size, for a football player, he makes up for in heart. He wears no armbands or visor; he just wears his black neck extender on his shoulder pads to protect him from the violent collisions he encounters on a daily basis.

This is the second year that Morton has been the leader of the special teams unit, breaking them down in practice and in games, leading the charge like a soldier into combat on kickoff and punt coverage. But it wasn’t always that way.

Morton hails from Henderson, Texas. He played football at Henderson High School until he transferred to the smaller, 2A West Rusk to play his junior and senior year. Make no mistake, transferring to the smaller 2A school didn’t mean the level of football went down.

“Very competitive, of course,” Morton said of his competition. “My 2A district was actually voted to be the toughest in the state at the 2A level. It had D1 athletes all over.”

Morton played both sides of the ball throughout high school as quarterback and middle linebacker. He excelled at both positions, being named first-team all-district linebacker and second-team all-district quarterback.

Late in the recruiting process his senior year, Morton decided to take a look at Iowa State.

“I looked at Iowa State because the Big 12 is a very well-known conference in Texas especially,” Morton said. “I wanted to be able to play at a Division I school in the Big 12, preferably. I came up and talked to [ISU coach Paul Rhoads], and he pretty much told me what I wanted to hear.

“He said I could come up here and put pads on and compete for a job and earn a scholarship if I walked on.”

Morton decided to take his chances walking on as a Cyclone. He then came to Ames with one mindset.

“I came up with one goal in mind: to earn a scholarship and get on the field and play,” Morton said.

Morton was able to use his redshirt his freshman year since he didn’t play. He said he then talked to one of the special teams coaches, Shane Burnham, at one point in fall training camp about finding a spot on the depth chart for that upcoming year.

“I said ‘Hey if you would give me a look, I can take a spot,’” Morton said. “I can work into your depth chart on one of your teams. I told them that, and they kind of brushed it off like [I] was any other walk-on guy trying to get on the field.”

At the practice after talking to Burnham, Morton said he played “extremely well” by making plays, executing blocks and tackling soundly.

Three games into the season, Morton finally made the depth chart and found his way onto the kickoff team against Kansas State and it all escalated from there.

Morton finished his redshirt sophomore season with eight tackles. A year went by, and he made two starts and finished his redshirt sophomore campaign with 19 tackles and a forced fumble.

Finally, at the end of fall training camp, Morton believed he was at the point where he was in a position to earn a scholarship.

He said it was after a practice when ISU coach Paul Rhoads would give away scholarships during training camp. Morton said that at this point they had already given away one or two, so he actually believed he wouldn’t receive one.

“It was at the very end of practice when he called everyone up like he does every day and he went to give his post-practice speech,” Morton said with a big smile. “The very last thing he said, I forget the exact wording, but he awarded us a scholarship, and everybody was excited about it.  He called our names out and said ‘You’ve got yourself a scholarship.’

“It was the most memorable moment of my Iowa State career.”

Last year, his third year on the depth chart and first as a scholarship Division I athlete, Morton earned Iowa State’s Jim Doran Award as the team’s outstanding performer on special teams. He led the team in special teams tackles, forced a fumble and recovered another one.

Now the defensive tackles coach, Burnham always knew Morton was one of those “special teams kind of guys.”

“The guys we’re looking for on special teams, you’ve got to be a little bit nutty, I mean you really do,” Burnham said. “There’s so much space between these collisions and the speed that gets built up, not many guys are going to embrace that process or embrace that role. He’s one of those guys where every time you looked up, you couldn’t help but notice the intensity that he played with.”

Morton roomed with ISU running back Jeff Woody early in his ISU career. Woody, like Burnham, knew that Morton was that special type of player that could thrive on special teams with the mentality he possesses. 

“To be great at special teams, especially kickoff and punt, you have to be a little off-kilter — in a good way,” Woody said. “Why would you ever want to run full speed into someone that’s bigger than you are? He’s intelligent, and he’s got just the right amount of crazy to make him a great special teams player.”

Now the idea of Morton being a mere walk-on is an afterthought. As Burnham said, Morton “leads the special teams every time he’s on the field.”

Morton went from being one of the “energy guys” to leading every special teams package aside from the field goal unit.

Burnham has seen a lot from Morton in his time at Iowa State. He noted specifically a few plays he’s made throughout his career that have given him positive memories of coaching.

Burnham cited the fumble he was in on at the memorable upset of Nebraska three years ago and specifically described another scene at the 2009 Insight Bowl — Morton was on kickoff coverage at the beginning of the game and was one of the first guys down the field to lay out the Gopher returner.

Burnham believed that play set the tone for the entire team. 

“There’s things I hope that are going to flash across my head on my deathbed,” Burnham said. “I remember against Minnesota in our bowl game on one of our first kickoffs, and he set the tone. Coming off the field, he was punch-drunk. He didn’t know where he was, but that’s one of those things, as long as I live, plays like that … Morton will always be one of those positive memories of coaching.

“He’s fearless.”