Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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nings and you have to give back and don't lose sight of the task at hand. Give back and be humble." "He's been everything," Morgan said of what his father has meant to his de- velopment. "He texts me almost every day. He's been there since the womb. He's developed me into the person I am today as far as work ethic, his resilience, intelligence, everything. "My dad was real hard on me, and back then I kind of didn't understand why. But I definitely get it now because I always want to learn to get better, and that's the thing he always preached to me." It was easy to remain humble his freshman season while learning under VanGorder, who has spent most of the past decade in the NFL. "I came from a high school system [where] it was really like, 'See ball, get ball,' compared to an NFL system [here]," Morgan said. "I kind of skipped a few steps there. The curve has been very steep." Morgan said VanGorder's two favor- ite lines he uses on him every day are "you just can't do it" and "just a young player." As a result, Morgan often has turned to Schmidt as his version of cue cards to facilitate learning the defense. "He can tell me without getting cursed out," Morgan said of Schmidt. Described by Kelly as "a film junkie," Morgan said his sessions with Van- Gorder in the film room are "not pretty." Yet when asked whether his father or VanGorder is tougher on him, he re- plied: "My dad, by far." Gradually, the game has slowed down for Morgan. When asked how much more football he knew in Decem- ber than in August, he replied "on a scale of one to 10 it's like a 30." "As I got more accustomed to it I real- ized this is an NFL system," Morgan said. "People get paid to play this type of defense. I realized where I was and where I need to be or how I will get there. "I embrace it fully because I know that once I learn it I should be set for a very long time — unless they just de- cide to change the whole NFL system one day." FITTING IN When, in his first year at Notre Dame, Kelly watched tape of linebacker Manti Te'o's freshman season in 2009, he couldn't get over how much the future Heisman runner-up was "just guessing" on every play while understanding very little about team scheme on a defense that ranked among the nation's worst. It has been similar learning curve for Morgan, who during summer camp ex- perienced his initial shock that everyone is faster and hits harder, and in college "you have to actually understand your fit, you actually have to play with 11 guys." The day-to-day approach of Morgan is to remain consistent in his attitude toward competition. "Recognize the negatives, take them, learn from them and then enjoy the pos- itives," he said. "When they're there, they're there, and when they're gone they're gone. It's really a next-play men- tality." Kelly said Morgan is sharp enough to play any of the three linebacker spots — Mike, Will (with Jaylon Smith) or Sam (with James Onwualu) — in Van- Gorder's scheme.