Saturday a special day for Morgan
Ex-Ohio State recruit wound up at N.C. State after horrific automobile accident
By John Delong
JOURNAL REPORTER
RALEIGH
When DaJuan Morgan suffered multiple injuries in an automobile accident a little more than a year ago, he would not allow himself to cry in front of rescue workers and his mother.
But months later, when Morgan was told that Ohio State had taken his football scholarship offer off the table, he broke down and cried for a full half-hour.
Football players can endure physical pain. Dealing with shattered dreams is something altogether different.
And that makes Morgan another of the many interesting story lines in Saturday's showdown between Ohio State and N.C. State at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Morgan, a wide receiver from Riviera Beach, Fla., wound up signing with the Wolfpack last February. He's still working his way up the depth chart and won't likely see much action on offense Saturday, but he is a starter on State's special-teams units.
"This game is going to be special for me," Morgan said earlier this week. "It's going to be different - just coming out to play Ohio State after what I've been through, knowing that I could be on that sideline but instead I'm on this sideline. I have a goal to show them what they're missing. I start on punt return, so I want to block a kick or something. I want to do something big."
State, 1-0 after a 42-0 win over Richmond on Sept. 4, rates as a slight underdog against the ninth-ranked Buckeyes. Ohio State is 2-0.
Morgan was a prized recruiting target after his junior year at Suncoast High, rated as the No. 27 wide-receiver prospect in the country by Rivals.com. In the summer leading up to his senior year, he was heavily recruited by the likes of Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee - and, of course, Ohio State and N.C. State.
Then came the horrific events of Aug. 22, when Morgan, his brother and two friends were involved in a head-on collision with a truck. Morgan, in the back seat, was knocked unconscious briefly and was trapped in the wreckage. He wound up suffering a dislocated hip, broken thumb, and cuts and bruises.
The memories remain haunting, especially the panic he felt when he was trapped and someone told him that gas was spewing and the car could catch on fire.
"My hip locked on me," he said. "It was the worst pain I've ever felt. I couldn't move. I heard a voice say 'This car is leaking, it might catch on fire,' so like, I was panicking. I got to get out. The driver, Melvin, he was slumped over, the blood was pouring out of his mouth. I heard my little brother screaming and crying. He thought I was dead."
Help arrived quickly, and all four were pulled out of the wreckage alive.
And at that point, Morgan vividly remembers making sure not to cry.
"The ambulance came, and then the chopper came, and then my mom came. I was lying there on the stretcher and she said, 'Baby, you all right?' I almost cried. But she was so strong, and she has so much faith, I didn't want to cry in front of her."
The dislocated hip ended Morgan's senior season before it started and put his football future in serious jeopardy. Morgan missed four weeks of school and needed eight weeks of mending before he could even start serious rehabilitation. He was told that he would be able to play football again, but the question was, would the injury discourage recruiters from continuing to pursue him.
Ohio State and N.C. State remained interested, however, and each kept its scholarship offer on the table.
Morgan took his official visit to Columbus in late November, watched the Buckeyes beat Purdue in overtime in front of 104,000 at Ohio Stadium, and came away mesmerized. He loved the atmosphere. He loved the thought of playing for the defending national champions. And most of all, he wanted to play for Coach Jim Tressel.
"When I first met Tressel, I mean, I just loved Tressel," he said. "There was something about him, I wanted to play for that man. I mean, he ran everything so smooth when they were in meetings before the game, things like that. I just like the way he addressed the players. I came home from my visit, and I was like, 'Man, that was nice. I want to play for this team. I like this.'"
He committed to Ohio State shortly thereafter, more than two months before national signing day in February.
But then, things turned bizarre.
As national signing day approached, Morgan was informed that Tressel and Bill Conley, Ohio State's recruiting coordinator, would visit. Morgan said he was under the impression that Tressel was coming to meet with his parents and firm up any remaining details.
Instead, only Conley showed up. And when he did, he met with Morgan's coach, Jimmie Bell, not Morgan. And he had shocking news.
The scholarship offer was being retracted because of grade issues, even though Morgan had a 3.25 grade-point average and had already scored 18 on his ACT - easily above requirements to play Division I football.
A provision in Ohio State's admissions requirements says that students must rank in the top 50 percent of their class, or they must be approved by an admissions board. Morgan, they said, was two percentage points shy at Suncoast.
"I knew something was going on when Conley left," Morgan said. "My coach had a look on his face I'd never seen. He said, 'Coach Conley didn't tell you why they were coming here, did he?' And I was like, no, I thought we were going to talk like we always do, and then they were going to come meet my parents.
"So my coach is like, 'OK, here's what is going on. Ohio State has changed to the Ivy League something and their standards are higher and there is something called admission fees and you have to have points add up to 50 percent, and you're missing two percent.' I was still lost, so I said, 'Coach, break it down for me, I still don't know what you're talking about.
"And he said, 'Right now, your scholarship's being put on hold.'"
The impact was more powerful than a head-on collision.
Morgan said he immediately broke down and started crying.
"I was like, 'I committed to Ohio State, I cut off everyone else, I didn't take all my visits, I gave them my word - and here it is two weeks from signing date and this comes?' I just stayed there like 30 minutes crying. My mom called for me, and I couldn't even talk to her.
"I mean, everybody in the community knew where I was going. It was always, Ohio State, Ohio State. And it was like, after all I'd been through, more adversity now. All that rehabbing I did, it was in anticipation of coming back 100 percent so I could play for the Buckeyes."
Morgan tracked down Conley and met with him in Fort Lauderdale later in the day. Conley offered several options, including prep school or grayshirting; i.e., enrolling a quarter or two late.
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