Reviewing the Redshirts is an off-season series meant to resurrect discussion around the current Irish freshmen who did not play in 2016.
There were 11 players who retained a year of eligibility this past year and today we look at a big safety still trying to find his way through the Irish depth chart.
S, D.J. Morgan
Hometown: Norwalk, California
Height: 6-2 1/8
Weight: 208
247Sports Composite Ranking:
3-star, No. 29 S, No. 56 CA, No. 482 USA, 0.8711 score
Need at Position: Mild
Expected Spot on the 2017 Depth Chart: Third-string
If there’s one player from the 2016 class who has been forgotten the most it’s D.J. Morgan. It’s weird because he checks most of the boxes that would keep him in the consciousness of most fans. He had good size, came from a top high school in California, and wasn’t a terribly low rated recruit.
To put it into more fresh perspective, Morgan would’ve been the 13th highest rated member of the recently signed 2017 class. That’s pretty decent.
The issue for Morgan is twofold. For one, his film was really pedestrian. A lot of the time we’re left wondering how a recruit isn’t more highly rated and it’s often because they don’t play at a major high school. The opposite may be true for Morgan–he may have received a nice bump for playing at Saint John Bosco in the Los Angeles area.
Secondly, Morgan was on the negative end of the “tweener” label when viewed through the lens of his recruiting film. Just about everyone dismissed his ability to play safety at Notre Dame and with a change in defensive coordinators it remains to be seen where he’ll fit in if he does move to linebacker.
This is a tough position for Morgan to be in as his reported weight as of last August was not nearly big enough for linebacker. It’ll be great to finally get a look at him during spring but if he’s not putting on much weight there’s no way he is going to play linebacker at Notre Dame.
For the record, Morgan gained 8 pounds from the new spring roster which isn’t a bad start. It’s still not enough to change positions and he remains listed as a safety.
It’s difficult to dance around the subject, it’s going to be a tough climb up the depth chart for Morgan unless he completely shocks many people in the spring. Even with a strong safety situation that could be there for the taking–especially if Tranquill isn’t involved–he might have to fight all spring for 3rd string reps, or worse.
