For DeMatha DE Morgan, no other schools could top Pitt
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When John Morgan pulled into Pittsburgh Saturday night, he didn’t think he was ready to commit.
But by the time the DeMatha defensive end was done with Pitt’s senior elite camp on Sunday, he knew he wanted to be a Panther.
“They just gave me a feeling that some schools just didn’t top,” Morgan told Panther-Lair.com after committing to Pitt Sunday afternoon. “It was just something that you couldn’t evaluate with just taking visits; you had to get to know coaches and stuff like that, and I really got to know Coach (Charlie) Partridge and Coach (Pat) Narduzzi very well, and they gave me a personal connection that I couldn’t feel at any other school.”
Morgan previously visited the Panthers in March and got a feel for what Pitt has to offer as a football program and as a campus, and the combination of those factors led to his decision on Sunday.
“The relationship with the coaches was a big thing. And the campus life - I got to visit the campus and it was just somewhere that I could see myself prospering as a young man and then, with the coaches’ help, becoming one of the top players in their program and making my dream come true.”
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Morgan’s teammate, cornerback Judson Tallandier, committed to Pitt on Friday.
“That weighed on me a good amount,” Morgan said. “Me and Jud, being at DeMatha since freshman year, we always talked about going somewhere and playing on the next level together. It’s something that we both look forward to when we get down there to Pittsburgh.”
Still, Morgan wasn’t entirely sure about committing on the spot. After all, he had 11 other offers, with Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse and Virginia Tech among the schools on his list, and his original plan was to wait things out and see more of what those schools had to offer.
That plan changed on Sunday.
“Last night, it was on my mind,” Morgan said Sunday afternoon. “I didn’t know if I wanted to do it today because I didn’t think it was going to be the right time; I thought it was early.
“But then throughout the coach, talking to Coach Partridge and talking to Coach Narduzzi, I felt more comfortable and saw that they really wanted me to become a Pitt Panther, so just made me feel like I should commit today.”
Those two coaches - Partridge, Pitt’s defensive line coach, and Narduzzi, the head coach - were key figures in Morgan’s commitment and his decision.
“Coach Partridge a great guy. I got to work with him today a lot and I got to see where his mind was I really like his mindset when it comes to defensive line. He’s a guy that you can go to any time and talk to him and he’ll give you good insight.
“And I would say Coach Narduzzi one of the best coaches in the ACC, in my eyes. He’s someone that is relentless when it comes to hard work; he’s always looking for effort and he’s always looking for effort from guys that you can’t coach. That’s one thing that I look to in my game that gives me the success I have now.”
So, after working out with Partridge at the prospect camp, Morgan went upstairs to Narduzzi’s office and made it official.
“I was in Coach Narduzzi’s office and we were talking, and he told me that if I committed, I would have to be 100% and it would be one of the biggest decisions in my life,” Morgan said. “Then he asked me if I was ready, and I said I was. We chopped it up after that.”
Morgan, 6'2" 245, is Pitt’s seventh commitment in the class of 2018 and the fourth defensive recruit to pick the Panthers. In addition to Morgan and Tallandier, Pitt also has commitments from Thomas Jefferson defensive end Noah Palmer and Richmond (Va.) linebacker Wendell Davis. And the Panthers have offensive commitments in Butler offensive lineman Jake Kradel, Montvale (NJ) St. Joseph’s quarterback Nick Patti and Cambridge (Mass.) Buckingham Browne & Nichols tight end/H-back Jay Symonds.