Monday HawkeyeReport.com had a chance to visit with Iowa Assistant Coach Reese Morgan about his coaching career and his position as offensive line coach at Iowa. In Part One of our interview that is free to all users, Coach Morgan talks about growing up in Ohio, going to college in Iowa, and the start of his Hall of Fame coaching career.

Q: Talk about where you grew up and the role football played in your life as a youth.

MORGAN: I grew up in Lorain, Ohio. It is a steel city, a real blue collar place just east of Cleveland. My dad worked in a factory and my mom was at home. I played football starting in junior high and went to St. Mary’s High School in Lorain. It is not even a high school anymore. We were fortunate to win our league all three years in high school. We were 27-0 in high school.

In my senior year of high school my coach was a gentleman by the name of Tim Rose. He is now the defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech. He was the head coach at Miami, OH for a number of years. He was also the defensive coordinator at Memphis State, Minnesota, Boston College, and East Carolina. He probably had the biggest impact and influence on me in my life as far as coaching. I just admired what he stood for, in terms of values, the type of person he is, and his passion for the game.

I had a great experience in high school and it was a lot of fun. I think we had 11 seniors on our high school team and 8 of us went on to play ball in college. It was a lot of fun.

Q: What role did your parents play?

MORGAN: It is kind of sad because my mom passed away when I was in 8th grade after battling cancer for a couple of years. She really was never able to see a game that I played in. I can remember because I went to a catholic school we had to play on Sundays because we could not get the fields on Saturday. We would go up to the hospital after the games and we would tell her about it. My dad came to as many games as he could, but there were periods of time where he had family responsibilities, work, and he had some health issues as well. But, he was really very supportive of my athletic career.

Q: Do you have any brothers or sisters?

MORGAN: Yeah, I am the oldest of four. I have a brother and two sisters. My brother played high school football. I have sister who is a nurse and married to a doctor in Ohio and another sister that is a medical assistant and married to a guy in Charlotte and we are headed there this week to visit them.

Q: After high school you end up in Iowa, playing college football at Wartburg.

MORGAN: It was really a very interesting thing. We had a very successful high school season and we had some great players. We had the lineman of the year in the state of Ohio, who ended up going to Duke. We had a guy who went to Northwestern. There were three of us that our high school coach actual drove to Wartburg. At that time Division Three was still giving scholarships. I remember him driving us in his ’68 LaMans or something like that and dropping us off in Waverly. We kind of fell in love with the place and the people of Iowa once we got here.

We had a pretty good year my freshman year and won the league. It was really a good experience there.

Q: What position did you play?

MORGAN: In high school, I guess you would say I was an offensive and defensive lineman. In my senior year I also played linebacker. In college I played linebacker to my senior year and defensive lineman most of my senior year.

Q: After college you get into coaching. Was that just a natural progression for you?

MORGAN: I really did not coach my first year out. I was working as a superintendent of a maintenance construction company. I was living in Van Horne and all of the sudden a coaching position opened up. I had done some volunteering there and one thing lead to another and it worked out pretty well. I then had the chance to do some coaching and I really enjoyed the experience.

Q: From there you get your first head coaching job. What was that like?

MORGAN: At Benton Community I had been an assistant for several years and coming back on the last away game, our head coach, Ron Donald just announced that he was going to resign. No one had any idea it was coming and it put a little turmoil on things. That was in 1978 and there was an opportunity for that position. It was really a great opportunity for me and I had some great years there at Benton Community. We were able to achieve a level of success and the people there were fantastic, the players there were tremendous and had a great work ethic.

Q: What does it take for a high school coach to be successful?

MORGAN: I think you need three things: The first thing is you need talented players who care. Talent varies and some people may look at a player and think he is not talented, but another coach may think he is very talented. Once the talent is there they have to buy into and believe in what you are doing, plus they have to have a great work ethic and be team players. I think that the other thing that you have to have is support from all levels. It starts with the administration at whatever school or organization you are at. I think you need to earn the support that you get from the people you are going to be working with on a daily basis. I think you do that by working on a daily basis to show those people that you care about the kids and doing things the right way. Then you have to earn the support of the parents. It does not just happen by you just having the position, you have to go out and show them that you are going to provide them with an experience for their children that is going to be a positive one. It is not necessarily measured in wins and losses; it is measured by what the young person leaves the program with. I think that the third thing is that you have to have a tremendous coaching staff. Just like Coach Ferentz has done here when he is selecting people, you look for guys that can teach and have great relationships with young people. You want to have people on staff that want to see people succeed, and are very knowledgeable and passionate about the game.

Q: From Benton Community you head to Iowa City West. Talk about your accomplishments at West High.

MORGAN: Benton Community was a very comfortable situation, but probably what made things change was that we were in a car accident and we were in the hospital for a number of weeks and it gets you thinking about things. I got to thinking that there are other things out there, so I went back to school and got my administrative degree. There was an opportunity here at West High to do both administrative duties as well as coach. We really had a great experience there and the support there was fantastic. Our kids really bought into what we were trying to do.

Q: As a coach at West High, you were able to send some players to the University of Iowa. Talk about some of those kids.

MORGAN: Most notable of those players is probably Nate Kaeding. He has probably had the highest degree of success here. Nate was always a great competitor and a very charismatic guy. He was very colorful in high school and actually when he came and kicked for us as a sophomore he was borderline cocky. (laugh) I think he really matured and developed into a quality person. Tyler Luebke is a kind of a blue collar guy. A real tough and hard nosed kid who has worked hard to provide himself with the opportunity to get on the field. Prior to that, Ryan Hansen was an excellent player and was actually in law school during his senior year. I think he is working in Des Moines now for the state legislature. Nick Whisler was a quarterback that came here and had to stop playing due to injury.

Q: You were on the other end of the recruiting game at this point. What were your impressions of this staff and Coach Ferentz at the time when they were recruiting your players?

MORGAN: Anyone who is around Coach Ferentz knows that he is really a unique individual, what you see is what you get. He is such a caring and common person, who does not think of himself and has no ego. He cares more about others and our program than he does about himself, which is a unique characteristic. Sitting down and visiting with him and seeing and getting an understanding of what he believes is everything I believed in as a coach, parent, and educator. It is really easy to buy into everything he talks about and that filter down through the rest of the staff as well.

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