Mississippi Valley State University’s new football coach, Karl Morgan, has “experience, professionalism, discipline, energy and a demonstrated winning attitude,” Interim Athletic Director Donald Ray Sims said Monday.
The selection of Morgan, the former defensive coordinator at the University of North Alabama, was announced at a press conference.
Morgan, a 48-year-old Louisiana native, will replace Willie Totten, who resigned after eight years as head coach. Valley has had only 13 winning seasons in its 58-year history.
Morgan said he actively pursued the position.
“I went after this job full of energy and excitement,” he said. “I heard about all the things about consolidation, scholarships and all that kind of stuff. It did not deter me. I saw potential and I saw opportunity here.”
After cleaning out his office at North Alabama, he plans to return to Valley on Wednesday. He said he already had a prospective staff put together and plans to serve as defensive coordinator as well as head coach.
“The staff has been put together for the most part, but everybody has to now get away from where they’re at,” he said. “Some are going to take some time, as far as two-week notices and all that kind of stuff.”
Morgan has 21 years of coaching experience including stints as defensive line coach at Nicholls State, Southern University, Purdue University and Arkansas State University. He has also served as defensive coordinator at Alcorn State University, Hampton University and North Alabama.
North Alabama, an NCAA Division II program, was 55-10 during Morgan’s five years as defensive coordinator. This past season, his defense led the Gulf South Conference in scoring defense, total defense and passing defense.
In Morgan’s 65 games as defensive coordinator, North Alabama had 82 fewer turnovers than its opponents.
Morgan was a defensive lineman with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“The first thing we must do before we go out to find new players is that we’ve got to evaluate the old players,” Morgan said. “We have to look at all 11 games from last year.”
Morgan said he planned to recruit heavily in the Delta. “There’s more than enough good football players here,” he said.
He said in-state scholarships eat up far less money then out-of-state scholarships.
“If we can’t find our needs in the Delta, we are going to hit the rest of Mississippi. Mississippi first, because it makes sense as far as finances,” he said. “We can stretch our recruitment money further and longer than if we are going out to Arkansas, Texas and Alabama.”
Morgan said it is simply out of the question to flip the entire team with new players.
“Those 14 offensive linemen that are coming back, nine freshmen, five sophomores — those guys will have to play,” Morgan said. “Even though they gave up 58 sacks. We’ve got to get a coach in here that can coach them, and we’ve got to get them better. That’s the bottom line.”
Morgan said a big part of a turnaround will be changing attitudes and perceptions.
“The perception on the inside is the one you’ve really got to change,” he said. “The outside perceives this as an end-of-the-world kind of place. We don’t want our own guys to think (that).”
Another priority will be obtaining more funding. Former Valley coach Willie Totten cited that as a reason for the team’s lack of success.
Morgan said he will work to address the funding issue and not complain about it.
“We’ve got to raise money,” he said. “I’m not a guy that is going to complain about what we don’t have.”
He said he was prepared to lead the way in a Valley revival and asked the community to stand behind him.
“Let’s turn up the heat,” he said.
Five candidates for the job were brought to the campus last week for interviews and public forums.
Valley had a 3-8 record this year and was 1-6 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It was Totten’s sixth losing season as head coach. He finished with a record of 31-58.
Totten said he plans to remain with the university as the associate director for institutional advancement with an emphasis on athletic fund-raising.
According to a news release from the athletic department last week, the finalists were selected from a search committee that included the community, alumni and university personnel. The finalists were selected from a pool of 25 applicants.
