While hunting quarterbacks, Pitt’s John Morgan shows young people another way
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Depending on who’s listening, John Morgan III has separate messages that convey his passion for football and for life above and beyond the game.
Pitt’s senior defensive end spent the summer preparing for training camp that is now deep into its second week. But there’s more cooking inside his brain that may separate him from many other 6-foot-2, 265-pound men who are trained to hunt quarterbacks.
Morgan is a volunteer for Orange Arrow, an organization — run by its founder and president, former Pitt defensive back Shawn Robinson — that trains student-athletes to make a difference in the lives of grade school and middle school students. As Robinson points out, sports is only the avenue traveled toward that goal; the endeavor is singularly aimed at showing young people the proper way to live their lives.
“They don’t show them how to be faster or stronger or anything like that,” Robinson said. “But they show them how to be successful in life. They train them in decision-making. They can teach kickball anytime.”
Morgan and several teammates have visited youngsters in McKeesport, Arsenal Middle School and other venues in the area.
“It gives me a great feeling, seeing myself being a role model to those kids,” he said. “It changes everything. Those kids look up to somebody like me, look up to Pitt football. That’s something they aspire to be.”
His message: “Stay in school, stay hard working and don’t disrespect your parents,” he said. “They’re your parents, listen to them. They’ll point you in the right direction.”
Back on the Beano Cook practice fields on the South Side, Morgan and teammates are preparing for the season that opens Sept. 1 against West Virginia. And they aren’t afraid to talk about their expectations.
“We’re trying to take it to the next level,” he said. “We’re trying to be the most disruptive defense in the country, whether that be sacks, TFLs (tackles for loss), interceptions.”
Pitt has collected a total of 151 sacks over the past three seasons. “We call ourselves Blitzburgh,” Morgan said.
Not only do they share a practice facility with the Steelers; Pitt’s players now want to use their neighbors’ longtime nickname. (Blitzburgh was the name given to the Steelers’ 3-4 scheme, designed in the 1990s by former defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.)
“It makes it more fun when you have 11 guys trying to hunt the quarterback,” Morgan said.
The competition Narduzzi and his staff have ignited in the trenches – offensive line vs. defensive line – has led to some “chippy days,” Morgan said.
“It comes with the sport. We’re all friends. Once we leave the field, we’re buddies in the locker room. That’s what matters.”
One of the scrappiest of the bunch is junior defensive end Dayon Hayes, described by Morgan as “a heavy-handed guy.”
“Sometimes, on film, you see he might knock a couple chin straps back.”
Hayes, a Westinghouse graduate, said he has recently developed the requisite serious approach demanded by defensive line coach Charlie Partridge.
“At the beginning, I really wasn’t focused,” Hayes said. “My head wasn’t really good. At the end of the (2021) season, I started locking in on all the little details, more film, more stuff with (Partridge). He started to trust me more.”
Pitt’s practice facility became his second home.
“I started to lock in on not going home. I was really going home a lot. It was affecting me a lot. I started to say, ‘I’m only going home on weekends, focus on the week. That really helped me put those bridges up.”
Hayes said he learned from senior ends Morgan, Habakkuk Baldonado and Deslin Alexandre.
“I watched every game. I watched all the D-ends, focusing on what they were doing right and wrong and trying to, basically, bring it on the field.
“Des, he’s strong. He’s a striker. Haba, he’s very finesse. He’ll act like something, and he’ll do something else.
“John’s got it all. Everything John’s got, I want.”
When you discuss the season with many of Pitt’s players, you get the unmistakable impression that nothing short of winning the national championship will be acceptable.
“At the end of the day,” Morgan said, “I want to be in California in January (SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, site of the national title game). I want to be in that No. 1 spot, holding that nice, gold trophy up. That’s my end goal.
“We’ve been talking about that (national championship) since after the season. We got our ACC championship, but now we’re looking bigger and better.
“We felt what the confetti felt like. We felt it in Charlotte. Now we want to feel it in SoFi in Los Angeles.”