By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Shortly after his debut season in 1999, Kirk Ferentz made a phone call that would ultimately lead to one of the best decisions he has ever made as the Iowa football coach.

Iowa had just finished 1-10 in 1999 when Ferentz reached out to Reese Morgan to see if he would be interested in joining his staff.

“I couldn’t believe the day that coach called our home and said he wanted to talk,” Morgan said Wednesday. “I thought this was a prank call, somebody’s trying to be funny.

“I didn’t know.”

It was no joke.

Ferentz had lost 10 of his first 11 games as the Iowa head coach and nobody was laughing. He needed help and knew where to turn.

Morgan was the highly successful head coach for Iowa City West High School at the time, and had just led the Trojans to the 1999 Class 4A state title, which was the program’s third state title in eight seasons under his watch.

Morgan also had built Benton Community into a football powerhouse in the 1980s and was considered a legend in the high school ranks.

Ferentz obviously had done his research and was intrigued by Morgan’s success, and by his sparkling reputation as a molder of young men. Ferentz invited Morgan, and Morgan’s wife, for a meeting, and then one or two days after the meeting, Ferentz made Morgan an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“It wasn’t tough at all,” Morgan said of his decision to come to Iowa.

Morgan is nearing the end of his 19^th season on the Iowa staff. He has coached the defensive line for the past seven seasons after having coached the offensive line for nine seasons.

He also coached the tight ends and served as recruiting coordinator for his first three years in the program from 2000 to 2002.

Morgan has basically done whatever Ferentz has asked him to do, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive, both on and off the field.

Ferentz has spoken highly over the years about Morgan’s influence and about his contributions to the program. Ferentz likes to joke that if he were smarter, he would’ve hired Morgan one year sooner.

“It’s been an unbelievable experience and a dream and you just feel so fortunate to do this and be around such good people,” Morgan said. “Coach is a hall of fame coach, a hall of fame person. And what this program stands for is everything that I’ve always believed in as a parent, as an educator, as a coach.

“So it’s really pretty easy to buy into a person who you share the values that he embodies.”  

Morgan and Ferentz are similar in that neither is comfortable talking about themselves. They always try to deflect the praise and shift the spotlight, and that’s probably one of the many reasons they have worked so well together.

Iowa will make its 16^th appearance in a bowl game under Ferentz when it faces Mississippi State in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day in Tampa.

The list of players who have thrived under Morgan is a Who’s Who of former Hawkeye stars, from Robert Gallery to Marshall Yanda to Brandon Scherff to current defensive end A.J. Epenesa.

Morgan is also a force as an in-state recruiter. He identifies prospects early in the process and then starts building relationships.

Morgan considers his time at Iowa to be a dream come true, but he will always hold a special place in his heart for high school coaches.

“I think a high school coach has an important and huge role in impacting young people because you see them every day,” Morgan said. “We see our guys limited because we have a strength coach, we have a training staff.

“In high school, you’re there all the time. You’re the guy that sees them in between periods and stuff. So the impact that person can have is huge.”

As for the phone call from Ferentz nearly 20 years ago, Morgan still remembers it well.

And why shouldn’t he?

It was a call that changed the course of Morgan’s life and he didn’t even have to move from Iowa City to make the change.

“He called and said I’ll call you back in a week,” Morgan said of Ferentz. “And initially, I said coach, please don’t. You want to find a college coach, somebody that has knowledge and brings something to the program.

“At the time, he was looking at several people and he called back in a week and he said, why don’t you and (your wife) come over and we’ll talk about things. And we came over and visited and it just happened the next day or two.”

The fact that Morgan was reluctant at first because he felt there were other candidates that were more qualified is typical Reese Morgan.

He and Ferentz have worked so well together because they approach work with the same humility, passion and work ethic, and with the same self-deprecating sense of humor.

It’s always about the players, and never about them.

Morgan is 68 years old, but shows no signs of slowing down or that he is losing his passion for coaching.

Ferentz is the same way at 63 in that he also seems fully engaged and energized by the daily challenge that comes from coaching.

Morgan almost became emotional on Wednesday as he talked about working under Ferentz for nearly 20 years.

“He’s a high-character leader, passionate,” Morgan said of Ferentz, who is Iowa’s all-time winningest football coach with 151 career victories. “He cares about kids, does things the right way, cares about this university, and intense, but so polite and humble.”

Ferentz has said almost the exact thing about Morgan over the years.

They share a mutual respect that has to help from a coaching standpoint.

A head coach makes countless decisions that impact what happens on and off the playing field, and Kirk Ferentz made one of his best decisions in hiring Reese Morgan.

Ferentz took a chance on a high school coach and Morgan took a chance on Ferentz and without any signs that Iowa was on the upswing.

They have now been together for 150 victories, two Big Ten titles and one Big Ten West Division title and soon to be a 16^th bowl game.

“He is a man’s man, a leader’s man,” Morgan said of Ferentz said. “Anybody that is around him cares about him. And the thing that you see is he hasn’t changed in the time he’s been here. He doesn’t need a lot of things and he’s always giving to other people.

“He’s open to new ideas, but things are going to be done his way. And that’s one thing that isn’t going to change.”