Reese Morgan retiring

Adam said:
Capable of teaching technique and gameplan to the D-Line? Sure, I don't doubt that. Capable of filling every intangible of Morgan for this program? Not even close. 10 years from now maybe.

Losing Morgan is like collapsing a heart ventricle. Morgan embodied the culture set in place at Iowa better than just about anyone. He literally disrupted blood from the source to the rest of the body. After the loss of Norm Parker and the exit of O'Keefe Morgan became the lynch pin of the old guard. Coupled with his uncanny ability to spot talent between the lines of obvious, his role to this program is not likely to be filled by any one person and certainly not immediately.

That said, it seems reasonable to think Bell gets the nod to move up. That leaves the Recruiting Coordinator position open. We need to find an absolute wrecking ball for this position. Many Iowa fans pine away for stellar recruiting and the hope that it leads to on field triumph. This moment in time could be the defining moment for such an occurrence.

It is my hope that Kirk senses the importance of this hire. It is my hope that Kirk breaks a perfectly good tradition of staying within the Iowa tree of hiring pool. This might be our best chance to close the recruiting gap between us an the habitual top 25 recruiting schools.

I think someone young, hungry and charismatic is ideal for this position. We have the image of the unwavering, unmoving rock that changes for nothing. While on one hand that is a good thing, but on the other it is a stale image. I really want to see a juxtaposition here. Let's look for someone who has the personality to rewrite this narrative to our recruits when needed. Someone who can more than get their foot in the door with 5* talent on a consistent basis.

I think we can all agree that Iowa could benefit from an elevated recruiting effort. This may well be our last hurrah under Kirk. Whoever he hires this time will surely be providing the last few classes of kids that Kirk will mentor and coach. If Captain want to ride out on a high horse, he should consider this hire to make or break his legacy.
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Understandable.
I would just say every where Bell has gone they started winning at a good clip. Coincidence? I doubt it. It's one thing to pull a Frost and coach under Chip Kelly and then take over a winning program that had a bad year because the players gave up on the coach.
It's another to go from staff to staff and every where you go you are winning and churning out all conference players.
That seems like some good blood and life line.

The recruiting position, I agree, we need to really get someone good at spotting talent and that can relate to the recruits and parents well.
 
I think you can evaluate a head coach by the quality of his assistant coaches and their loyalty to that head coach.

Morgan is one of the all time greats. Fry and Ferentz truly have had hall of fame of assistant coaches. Morgan certainly is a Hall-of-Famer.
 
4thngoal said:
Understandable.
I would just say every where Bell has gone they started winning at a good clip. Coincidence? I doubt it. It's one thing to pull a Frost and coach under Chip Kelly and then take over a winning program that had a bad year because the players gave up on the coach.
It's another to go from staff to staff and every where you go you are winning and churning out all conference players.
That seems like some good blood and life line.

The recruiting position, I agree, we need to really get someone good at spotting talent and that can relate to the recruits and parents well.
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I guess I wasn't familiar with Bell's pedigree. I thought he rose threw the ranks at Iowa. I of course just looked it up. I was partially correct. All of his D1 experience is solely with Iowa. Granted the teams he has been apart of coaching have done well for themselves, but I don't know how much stock you can put into garnering results at places like Trinity International and Wayne St. I'm sure he will do fine as a D-line coach. It's the recruiting that scares me.

Morgan's eye for talent has bailed Iowa out of more shitty recruiting and roster comp then I care to assess. The fact that he has had so many diamond in the rough prospects pan out at Iowa is a simple reflection of our poor recruiting. Some of these players turned into all time greats, but if we are honest with ourselves, we would know that if we recruited top 25 like we play then a lot of those guys wouldn't have seen the field. Without Morgan's 20% success rate of longshot projects panning out, I am gravely concerned for the impact on our walk on and late signee sides of the program.

That is specifically why I feel that the loss of Morgan could be devastating. Without recruiting improvement we might start to see some blatant holes in the team. Even worse than what people complain about currently.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
What state or where was this? Cool how this made you follow Iowa and become a fan.
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This was in Cedar Rapids, I was already down here for grad school, but was still holding on to old (but weak) team allegiances (Gophers). I also had a friend from undergrad who coached at ISU under McCarney, so I cheered for the Cyclones as well. I would say it was about 2003 or so that I decided to self-identify as a Hawkeye fan. One of the best decisions I have ever made.
 
Adam said:
I guess I wasn't familiar with Bell's pedigree. I thought he rose threw the ranks at Iowa. I of course just looked it up. I was partially correct. All of his D1 experience is solely with Iowa. Granted the teams he has been apart of coaching have done well for themselves, but I don't know how much stock you can put into garnering results at places like Trinity International and Wayne St. I'm sure he will do fine as a D-line coach. It's the recruiting that scares me.

Morgan's eye for talent has bailed Iowa out of more shitty recruiting and roster comp then I care to assess. The fact that he has had so many diamond in the rough prospects pan out at Iowa is a simple reflection of our poor recruiting. Some of these players turned into all time greats, but if we are honest with ourselves, we would know that if we recruited top 25 like we play then a lot of those guys wouldn't have seen the field. Without Morgan's 20% success rate of longshot projects panning out, I am gravely concerned for the impact on our walk on and late signee sides of the program.

That is specifically why I feel that the loss of Morgan could be devastating. Without recruiting improvement we might start to see some blatant holes in the team. Even worse than what people complain about currently.
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I agree to an extent. I'm just trying to calm everyone down.
Morgan is an excellent coach and leaves some huge shoes to fill.
I'm just comfortable with Bell because he has had success elsewhere (remember Morgan came from a Iowa hs). Also Bell has put in time at Iowa. The time at Iowa allows me too #1 know that he learned under Morgan, which adds to his winning and churning out all conference players. #2 and equally important nobody knows more than him how big of shoes Morgan leaves..
I suspect Morgan will stay active with the the staff and once a coach always a coach. He's going to watch football and tape. Maybe even more so with more time on his hands.
Spotting talent is a skill of itself and as you said can be negated somewhat by all around better recruiting (which we are seeing). I would hope in 19 years Morgan's ability to do so rubbed off a little on everyone.
But if this is how it goes your absolutely right we have to take the recruiting job very seriously, because it could be just the push we need.
 
This is a major blow to the program. But it was bound to happen eventually. Best of luck to RM moving forward and hopes he and his family enjoy their retirement. There's not enough that can be said what he has meant to this program. There was no one better at identifying untapped potential in a recruit than Reese Morgan. Thank you for all the years you have devoted to ALL of the State of Iowa. You will be sorely missed but forever remembered.
 
4thngoal said:
I agree to an extent. I'm just trying to calm everyone down.
Morgan is an excellent coach and leaves some huge shoes to fill.
I'm just comfortable with Bell because he has had success elsewhere (remember Morgan came from a Iowa hs). Also Bell has put in time at Iowa. The time at Iowa allows me too #1 know that he learned under Morgan, which adds to his winning and churning out all conference players. #2 and equally important nobody knows more than him how big of shoes Morgan leaves..
I suspect Morgan will stay active with the the staff and once a coach always a coach. He's going to watch football and tape. Maybe even more so with more time on his hands.
Spotting talent is a skill of itself and as you said can be negated somewhat by all around better recruiting (which we are seeing). I would hope in 19 years Morgan's ability to do so rubbed off a little on everyone.
But if this is how it goes your absolutely right we have to take the recruiting job very seriously, because it could be just the push we need.
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Well they call Kirk captain for a reason. He usually navigates the waters without rocking the boat to much. I'm sure he has a plan for this. I don't think anyone needs to panic or anything, but if Kirk chooses to underwhelm with the new recruiting coordinator we might see trouble on the horizon.
 
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