Four Questions is a daily interview with a coach or other person of interest in Georgia high school football. Today’s interviewee is Marietta coach Richard Morgan, who last season led the Blue Devils to their first state title since 1967.
Richard Morgan, Marietta head coach
1. The 2019 season was Marietta’s first state title since 1967, but it was your third (the first two won in Virginia). Is there a time when you’re thinking, “Let me enjoy 2019 a little longer,” and then a time when you start saying, “It’s a new season now?” What’s the way to handle that? “This year was unique because usually when you win a championship or have a great season, you come back after Christmas, have a banquet to end that season, then work toward the next one. For us, we were supposed to have our banquet in March but couldn’t because of the pandemic. It wasn’t until last Saturday that we got our state championship rings, so we were still celebrating the ’19 season last weekend with guys who have moved on. We weren’t able to put last year completely behind. It wasn’t the traditional way of transitioning, but now we’re finally at a place where we’ve celebrated, and last week starting practice was very symbolic. We got our rings Saturday, and it was nice to see some of my players that I haven’t seen since January, and then we began working Monday on the upcoming season.” [Morgan said 10 or 11 of the 17 seniors who signed to play college football returned. That included AJC all-class player of the year Arik Gilbert from LSU. Some would’ve been forced to quarantine at their colleges if they’d left and returned.]
2. Given the loss of those 17 now playing college football, eight at Power 5 Conference schools, what’s realistic this season? And was that the most talented senior class you’ve seen? “I would say it’s probably the most talented senior class I’ve had in my career. As far as moving forward, it’s not just talent but also experience that we’re replacing because they played so much football together. They’d been getting most of the playing time since they were freshmen and sophomores. We’ve built a strong program. A lot of the guys you’ll be hearing from this year were second-team guys in the past. I feel they’re ready to step up. They’re hungry and committed to the program. They’ve had success. You can look at a program top to bottom and see where it is, and they were 6-1 as freshmen and 6-1 in JV. They’re used to success and know how to practice. The guys in front of them showed them how to prepare. I know nobody knows most of their names, but hopefully we can change that as the year goes on. Now it’s their time to shine. I’m excited about this group.”
3. This has been a unique offseason with summer workouts restricted and the regular season delayed because of COVID-19. What is the biggest challenge with that? “You find out a lot about your kids and yourself going through something like this. Your job is to lead the program, and kids have to see that even though we’re away from each you, you’re still committed to them and working for them. It’s important to see that kids are finding ways to be involved. They were on our Zoom calls and watching film. They got their heads into the playbook. So you find out about the commitment level. Our kids did a great job getting themselves as ready as they could individually until we could get them back as a team. Now that they were back, the biggest thing in summer was getting their bodies back in shape. They bought in. Now that practice has started, it almost feels back to normal. There are still temperature checks and monitoring the locker room, making sure they aren’t congregating, but once we’re on the field, it feels like it always feels. The commitment and work are there.” [Marietta’s first workout in pads will be today.]
4. Are you confident this season can be played as scheduled? “I’m optimistic, I think that the leadership at the top has done a good job of getting us to this point. The GHSA, the superintendents, the administrators, the sports medicine committee, all got us as prepared as we can. Of course, societal things can change. You don’t know. Whether there will be spikes in cases, or if they go down, those things we can’t predict. Our mindset has been, ‘We’re playing football, let’s get ready to kick off Sept. 3 against Colquitt County as long as we’re not having outbreaks.’ Major League Baseball and the NBA will be a good judge of what happens. If they can finish their seasons, that will be a good sign. College football preparing for a season is a good sign. As long as things continue in that direction, I’d expect to play a full season.”
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