Drew Morgan always open, always ready

Arkansas Razorbacks wide receiver Drew Morgan (80) fights through tackle from Mississippi State defensive back Kivon Coman (11) following a reception on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.

— Wide receivers are known for demanding the football. They promise their quarterbacks and their coaches that they were always open on the previous play, or that they’ll be the best option on the next.

For much of the last two seasons, thousands watching the Arkansas football team saw wide receiver Drew Morgan step away from the huddle so that play-caller Dan Enos could see him ahead of a critical moment. Morgan would point to his chest and catch the eye of the UA offensive coordinator.

“You saw that?” Morgan asked a reporter. “Yeah, I do that. I just wanted Coach Enos to know that I was ready and to call my number.”

Yeah, and Morgan responded most of the time. The senior from Greenwood caught an SEC-best 63 passes in 2015 and 61 in 2016, with a bowl game left for a chance to top last season’s total.

Morgan is an open book, not just an open receiver. The 6-foot, 195-pounder answers all questions. He does not back away from anything, not a reporter with a tape recorder or a cornerback with a big reputation. He welcomes them all. You can knock him silly, but he’s ready again in an instant.

You better bring a tape recorder, too. He’s too fast for an old-timer with pen and pad. Morgan’s blue eyes sparkled when a reporter plopped the recorder on the table for a 60-minute conversation.

There were sweet stories, like the times on the farm he grew up on in Greenwood, chasing cows with his brother Grant, now a freshman linebacker with the Hogs.

“We tried to race them on the 4-wheelers, then we’d run with them,” he said. “There were lots of times we got cut up, our arms bleeding.”

That might have stopped them for a few minutes, long enough to show their wounds to their father. Typically, Matt Morgan would tell them to “rub some dirt” on their cuts and go back to playing.

“That makes me sound like a jerk,” Matt said. “But I was just trying to explain to them that it wasn’t that bad and a little dirt was all they needed. They’d be out there playing with the cows. They’d slap them on the butt and try to run around them without getting stepped on. Sooner or later, someone would get hurt and they’d come to me crying, but it wasn’t usually Drew. He wanted to be tough.

“It ended up being our little saying when something negative happened in life. Just rub some dirt on it and get back up.”

Drew admitted that the cuts were never deep, but there was usually some blood.

“I have to say that those are some of my fondest memories,” he said. “It would be me and Grant rough-housing. No doubt, someone would get hurt. Dad would say rub a little dirt on it and you were fine.”

It explains the toughness Morgan displayed in his four-year career with the Hogs. He’s sad that there is only one game left. He also admits that the memories are varied. He can’t wait for the bowl game and a chance to make up for one of the negatives in his UA career, the 28-24 loss at Missouri. It won’t be one he forgets.

“To be honest, I think the negatives (in his career) are the things I remember the most,” he said. “I remember the losses. I have a 24-hour rule, that no matter what happens, you have to forget it and move on to the next game, but it isn’t always easy.

“The 24-hour rule for the Missouri game was tough to deal with. It was the longest 24 hours of my life. I still am not sure what happened. I know I was playing hard. I know the man next to me was playing hard.”

Morgan dealt with the loss by jumping in his car at the Fayetteville airport and heading to Greenwood. There were hopes that he’d catch the end of the Greenwood-Pine Bluff game in the semifinals of the Class 6A playoffs.

“I knew that was where Grant would be, and I just wanted to see the end,” Morgan said. “It was better than going somewhere around here and doing something stupid. I just wanted to get to Greenwood.”

Morgan missed the finish of the 31-30 Greenwood victory.

“Cars were leaving the parking lot,” Morgan said. “So I pulled in and went straight to the coaches’ office.”

Not surprisingly, Greenwood coach Rick Jones and others began to console Morgan about the result in Columbia, Mo.

“I just wanted someone to tell me if the Bulldogs had won,” Morgan said. “They were worried about me. Did the Bulldogs win?”

Jones was not surprised to see either of the Morgans on that Friday night.

“Some might not understand, but when you play at a place like Greenwood, you don’t really ever leave,” said Jones, who coached the Bulldogs to the state championship game for the ninth time in 13 seasons. “Drew is a huge, special part of Greenwood football. I wasn’t sure when he got there, but I do remember seeing him at the end.”

Jones does recall the first time it was obvious that Morgan was a special player.

“It was his junior season against Greenbrier,” Jones said. “He jumped about five feet in the air to intercept a screen pass and turned it into a pick six.

“That was at linebacker. We started using him more at wide receiver after that, then at tailback when teams were making it hard to get him the ball. We wanted to get him the ball as many ways as possible and he wanted it.”

Yes, Drew Morgan has always wanted the ball, especially in the critical moments. Jones felt pressure to oblige.

“I’d stay up thinking of new ways to use him,” Jones said. “We had a lot of confidence in him. He did want the ball. That’s a mentality you can’t bottle, or you’d make millions, to have someone want it in crunch time.

“There are two types of people who want the ball. Some just want to show how great they can be with the ball. Give me the ball, look at me. Then, there are those that want the ball because they want the team to win. Drew was that kind.

“Literally, we had conversations like that, where he’d say to give him the ball so we could win. And he’d make a play to win the game. I’ve seen it the last two years at Arkansas.

“Wow, he’s been a warrior for the Razorbacks. I’ve seen him take abuse, go across the middle. Obviously, I’m really proud of him.

“I can say that in my years of coaching I’ve seen other competitors, but I don’t know that I’ve seen anyone better. He’ll fight until the end.”

Morgan came to Arkansas wanting to play as a true freshman. With wide receiver depth an issue, he learned all three positions in hopes of getting on the field. He is proud that he didn’t have to redshirt.

“I buckled down and learned all three,” he said. “If Coach needed someone, I wanted it to be me. I got in the playbook. I figured, might as well learn all of it.

“I was by myself a lot in the dorm. But Dan Skipper and I took turns asking each other questions, testing ourselves. I took the play book home one off night and asked my dad to quiz me.”

It didn’t all click until early in his junior year, after Enos arrived with some new passing game concepts that helped both quarterbacks and wide receivers. Morgan began to blossom in week two against Toledo when injuries began to wipe out key receivers.

Some thought a separated shoulder against Tennessee would wreck Morgan’s season, too. He just put on a brace and kept playing. He needed a little more than just dirt this time.

“I couldn’t practice,” he said. “I’d have to wear a green jersey. I’d get a shot before the game. It got worse against Mississippi State. I landed on it.

“I remember talking to (trainer) Matt Summers after the Tennessee game. I got the MRI and he said that I’d torn this and that. He said it would probably be something that would require surgery after the season.

“It just got progressively worse. The Mississippi State game was a third degree separation of the joint. Matt said there wasn’t anything left to tear. The doctor told me I was pretty tough.

“Running routes, I tried not to move it because that did hurt. I’m sure I looked funny. Sometimes I’d just put the good hand up to slow down the ball and then cradle it with the bad one.”

There were plenty of highlights despite the injury, especially a sequence of big plays in a four overtime victory over Auburn. One of his favorites was a touchdown pass to Kody Walker. Morgan took out two Tigers on the play.

“I just saw the way Auburn was lined up and that the linebacker was cheating out,” he said. “I was supposed to take my man outside, but I took him inside. I kinda flipped my butt at the end and got the linebacker, too. The coaches wanted to know what I was doing inside. I just smiled and said, ‘You will like it when you see the tape!’ They liked it.”

Morgan was back in the spring after surgery. But he was back in the green jersey, out of contact. He got mad several times when he thought Austin Allen looked away in pass skeleton drills.

“It was third down and I was open and he’d see me, then throw it to someone else,” he said. “I told him, ‘I’m your guy on third down. I was your brother’s guy.’ I think I did that a couple of times. I guess it’s understandable that he didn’t want to have me fall after a catch, or he was trying to keep me from something painful.”

Late in spring, there was a big moment when Allen found Morgan in the back of the end zone in a red zone drill.

“I got tape of that on my phone, going up to make the catch,” he said. “I texted it to Austin and said, ‘This is why you can trust me.’ His reply, ‘You are back.’ I texted back, ‘I’ve been back for three weeks!’ I was trying to make sure he knew I was all right.”

It’s just Drew being Drew. Feisty is his middle name.

“I get it from my dad,” he said. “He was a feisty point guard in college at Emporia State. I know because he pulled out the tape.”

There is also some golden tape of Drew’s first football touch in a real game. He was a first grader playing with third graders.

“It was in Cowboys Stadium,” Drew said. “I don’t even know how I got there, but I know I went 98 yards. Well, I guess I went 103, because I was in the end zone when I got the ball. I remember thinking was I ever going to get to the other end.”

Matt Morgan recalls the details.

“You don’t ever forget it and we do have the video,” he said. “Drew was just like now, smaller than everyone else. He had these huge shoulder pads. It was in Cowboys Stadium. It was some kind of a deal where the two teams that raised the most money got to play there. It was quite the production, with cheerleaders, announcers, everything.

“Drew didn’t get to play until late in the game. We weren’t even sure he would get in, but there he was at tailback, standing in his own end zone. I don’t think he got the ball on the first play. But on the second play, they handed it to him and he started dancing and juking. The first two or three seconds were pretty hilarious.

“He was going east and west for awhile, then found his hole and he was off. They couldn’t catch him. It was just like you’ve seen him do so many times in high school and college.

“I leaned over to his mother and said, ‘This is an omen. He’s going to be a football player. It’s destiny.’ And, it was right.”

Really, it started before that.

“It did,” Matt said. “I’d turn on a game and he’d be on my chest as a 6-month old, every time. He’d watch it. It didn’t dawn on me until we had the next kid that maybe this wasn’t normal.”

There are lots about Drew Morgan that aren’t normal. His work ethic is off the charts.

“Work ethic?” he said. “It’s how bad you want it. There are two things, need or want. Do you want it a little bit, or real bad.

“Everyone wants to shine, but no one wants to grind. If you do the grind, you are going to shine. Just flip those words around. It’s self-discipline.”

There’s a bowl game left, but it would be wrong to think that Morgan will be playing his last game. He’s sure there is pro football around the corner.

“I don’t know if I’ll be drafted,” he said. “But I want to play in the NFL. I wouldn’t have come to college if I didn’t want to play in the NFL. It might be that I have to sign as a free agent. I don’t care. I’ll sign for the minimum. I’ll play as long as I can. The team that does pick me up will be a lucky team. They will get a hard worker.”

That’s a promise. And count on it, Drew Morgan will be open.

This story first appeared in Hawgs Illustrated