Desmond Morgan (born September 9, 1992) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

and current coach. He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 2011 to 2015. He was a 2011

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and BTN.com Big Ten All-Freshman selection as well as a 2011 ''

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'' All-Freshman honorable mention for the 2011 team.

High school career

When Morgan was in high school, he worked out at a local gym in

Holland, Michigan Holland is a city in the western region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan on Lake Macatawa, which is fed by the Macatawa River (formerly known locally as the Black Ri ...

, that his father, Scott Morgan, went on to purchase in January 2017. He played linebacker and quarterback for West Ottawa High School, earning ''

The Holland Sentinel ''The Holland Sentinel'' is a newspaper published seven days a week in Holland, Michigan, United States, founded in 1896. It is published by Gannett. The newspaper covers most of Ottawa County, including Holland, Beechwood and Zeeland, as wel ...

'' Defensive Player of the Year recognition in 2010. In high school, Morgan was rated as the 24th and 42nd best

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

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middle linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

in the national class of 2011 by

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and

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, respectively.

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rated him as the 25th best football player in the state of Michigan. Morgan also played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

in high school. Morgan was a Michigan Wolverines fan growing up, and he committed to Michigan in early February 2011.

College career

2011 season

Morgan tweaked his

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupe ...

at the end of training camp, which limited him early in the season. Morgan is credited with starting the second game against Notre Dame on September 10, however, he struggled with his hamstring in the

rivalry game Pairs of schools, colleges and universities, especially when they are close to each other either geographically or in their areas of specialization, often establish a college rivalry with each other over the years. This rivalry can extend to both ...

. Brandon Hawthorne started the next five games. After seven games and a bye week, Morgan replaced Hawthorne as the starting weak-side linebacker based on superior performance. In announcing Morgan's promotion to the starting lineup, head coach

Brady Hoke Brady Patrick Hoke (; born November 3, 1958) is an American football coach in his second stint as the head coach at San Diego State University. He was previously the head coach at the University of Michigan from 2011 to 2014. Hoke grew up in O ...

said, "Desmond's got a great future. He's doing a lot of good things. We're excited about him." In his second career start on October 29, 2011 against Purdue, he had a team-high nine

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking u ...

. Morgan established career highs with 10 tackles in both of the final two games of the season: he posted 5 solo (including his only quarterback sack of the season) and five assists on November 26 in The Game against

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

and then he had seven solo tackles and three assists in the January 3,

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against

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. For the season, he earned 2011 Big Ten All-Freshman team recognition from both

and BTN.com as well as 2011 College Football News All-Freshman honorable mention honors.

2012 season

Morgan missed the September 15, 2012 game against

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due to injury. On October 13, 2012, Michigan designated

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's former jersey, No. 48, as a Michigan Football Legend Jersey. Morgan was honored as the first recipient of the Ford legend jersey, switching from the No. 44 jersey to No. 48. He earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition in 2012.

2013 season

In week 3, against

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during a third down and 1 goal line stand, Morgan made a key tackle for a loss in the final 20 seconds to preserve the 28–24 win. In the fourth quarter of the fourth game against

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

on September 21, Morgan made a one-handed interception to preserve a 24–21 victory. Morgan was named

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Big Ten Defensive player of the week.

2014 season

He only appeared in the season opener for the 2014 Michigan Wolverines football team against Appalachian State before injuring his hand and missing the rest of the season.

2015 season

Morgan was granted a fifth year of eligibility after the NCAA approved his medical hardship waiver. Through the first nine game of the 2015 season, Morgan was Michigan's leading tackler with 57 total tackles. Following the 2015 Big Ten Conference football season, he was an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection. He won the 2015

Roger Zatkoff Roger Zatkoff (March 25, 1931 – November 4, 2021) was an American professional football player and businessman. A native of Hamtramck, Michigan, Zatkoff played college football for the Michigan Wolverines from 1950 to 1952 and was selected ...

Award as the team's top linebacker. He finished his career as a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, and Morgan was also voted to the 2015 CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team selection.

Professional career

Morgan went undrafted in the 2016 NFL Draft. He joined the staff of the

Wayne State Warriors The Wayne State Warriors are the athletic teams that represent Wayne State University, located in Detroit, Michigan, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sporting competitions. The Warriors compete as members of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athle ...

as a graduate assistant for the 2016 season. The following season he took the same position with the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

References

External links

Official bio at Michigan

Morgan
at

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Morgan
at

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Morgan
at

Morgan archive
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Michigan Daily ''The Michigan Daily'' is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Michigan. Its first edition was published on September 29, 1890. The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the University's administration and other st ...

''
Morgan archive
at ''

AnnArbor.com ''AnnArbor.com'' was an online newspaper that covered local news of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the surrounding Washtenaw County. In 2013 ''AnnArbor.com'' was transitioned to MLive.com along with Advance Publications other Michigan newspapers an ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Desmond 1992 births Living people People from Holland, Michigan Players of American football from Michigan American football linebackers Michigan Wolverines football players Wayne State Warriors football coaches Maryland Terrapins football coaches Indiana State Sycamores football coaches