Oct. 23, 2007

EASTON, Pa. - It's Sunday evening and instead of sitting around watching football on TV like many college students, sophomore tailback DeAndre' Morrow is involved in a lively discussion about religion with his housemates.

"Religion is a topic that can get really heated," Morrow said. "You have to have people that can be civil and really controlled, and I think everyone in the house is mature enough to handle it."

Morrow is a member of Lafayette's McKelvy House, a community of 18 students that live together in a historic off-campus house and meet weekly for dinner and debates on a myriad of subjects. The students come from a wide range of backgrounds, ethnicities and majors to offer different perspectives on everything from the value of religion to how intelligence is measured.

"I look at the McKelvy House as a model of what Lafayette is striving to be," Morrow said. "It's a melting pot of cultures. I think diversity is a big part of learning. It's said that in college you learn 56 percent of everything from outside the classroom, so it's good to be around a diverse group of people. With the discussions you can get a whole bunch of different perspectives on life. Just being in the house in general and around all these different types of people helps you learn a lot."

Morrow, a History and Government & Law major, was nominated to be part of the program by one of his former professors. Like every other student being considered for the house, he had to go through a series of interviews and write a paper.

The schedule of a student-athlete is already pretty full and Morrow was hesitant to take on something that had a time commitment - in addition to football and school, he is also a member of the Brothers of Lafayette and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He says that a few of his teammates talked to him and encouraged him to take advantage of the opportunity.

Despite the stereotypes that often surround football players, Morrow insists that the discussions he has on Sunday nights at the McKelvy House aren't all that different than the ones he has in the locker room with his teammates.

"I don't consider myself an anomaly, so I have a big problem when people are surprised to hear I'm in the McKelvy House and that I'm a football player," Morrow said. "Honestly, on a daily basis I find myself in the locker room after practice with some of the guys having discussions about stuff that I'll have talked about at the McKelvy House. Like today we were having a discussion about religion and a lot of what I said at the meeting came from our discussion in the locker room."

Morrow isn't shy about voicing his opinions at the meetings, though he admits that the first meeting of the year was a little intimidating.

"We have smart kids - I mean one girl in the house speaks seven languages," he said. "Once you get into it though, I realized that it's just people talking and sharing ideas."

Morrow loves his dinners on Sundays and his games on Saturdays, and he's been having success in both areas. After sitting out the first four weeks of the season due to a high-ankle sprain he suffered in preseason, Morrow broke out against Columbia, running 94 yards on 19 carries. He scored his first collegiate touchdown in the fourth quarter by scrambling for 14 yards into the endzone to cap off a four-play, 33-yard drive, putting the final nail in the coffin for Columbia as Lafayette shut out the Lions, 29-0.

"All you can do is hope and pray," Morrow said of his performance. "I felt like I was prepared and that I had the ability to play. I was just planning for whatever would come."

Morrow's opportunity came in part as a result of injuries sustained by tailbacks Maurice White and Anthony D'Urso, who were ahead of him in the depth chart. Despite being third in line, no one doubted his abilities and head coach Frank Tavani wasn't at all surprised by Morrow's performance.

"We've had a lot of young kids who just haven't been able to break into the lineup," Tavani said. "It didn't surprise me to see DeAndre' go out there and do the things he did. In fact, in retrospect, maybe we should have used him a little sooner. You give him the opportunity and once he gets in the rhythm a little bit, he's having fun making some yards out there."

Morrow had seen action on special teams his freshman year, but he was surprised at how calm he was when his chance to play finally came.

"I prayed before the game `trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding,'" he said. "I pray that before every game. It surprised me though when I was in the game. It hit me on the third play and I was like `wow, why am I not nervous?' I don't know how to explain it."

Morrow got a chance to start the next game at Harvard, where he continued his success. In addition to leading the team in rushing (16 for 52 yards), he also led in receiving, catching seven passes for 89 yards. The highlight was a 32-yard catch from senior quarterback Mike DiPaola, the longest reception of the game.

As the game action is flying by, Morrow stays calm by keeping the game in perspective.

"My philosophy with football is that if the worst thing that happens to me is that I have a bad football game, then life's pretty good," he said. "It's just something I've been doing for so long that once I get in the groove, I don't even really think about it."

He leaves that to his Sunday night discussions.