Montgomery Bell (TN) offensive tackle Grayson Morgan made his way back to College Park for his first official visit this weekend and the Terps knocked it out of the park. The 6-foot-6, 270-pound lineman was not on commitment watch as he’ll spend June taking a multitude of visits to trim his list of schools down to five, but Morgan says the Terps are in a good position to make the eventual cut.
“They will definitely make the cut. I love the program, I love the culture there, the academics because they have one of the best business schools,” Morgan added. And the coaches there, I mean coach Braswell has coached at every level so he knows how to get guys ready to achieve that ultimate goal of trying to play in the NFL.” Morgan said he spent time with inside linebackers coach Brawley Evans, passing game coordinator Mike Miller and offensive line coach Brian Braswell during this weekend’s trip but the time he spent with head coach Mike Locksley gave him a new insight into the program.
“He’s trying to get kids like me to build his program,” Morgan added. “His main message was he wants great kids to come in and create a great culture. When he got there, the culture wasn’t the best and he’s really turned it around and you can tell with the team, I talked with a lot of the players and they talk about where they were, what they’re doing and how positive it was for them. That was the biggest thing he touched on. I got to talk to him personally at dinner and everything and got to see a different side of him from the life outside of football, which is always great to do.”
Morgan also took in a presentation from offensive line coach Brian Braswell to get an in-depth look at his potential position coach. “Coach Braswell did. We sat down and went over what my future would look like, what I need to work on and a little bit of how he coaches. Coach Braswell asked if I wanted to come in and redshirt or come in and start playing straight away. We talked a little about that, how I felt about it but they never gave a straight answer because they said they have no idea. It’ll all depend on how much I weigh, how I check out when I get there, or what position they’re in at that time.”
It also helped that Morgan was on campus to be among the first group of visitors to see the unveiling of the Jones-Hill House as it helped his official “definitely exceed my expectations.”
“The biggest thing that I was looking at was the people, facilities and the culture there. Really they hit all three, especially with the new building they opened up.”
Freshman tight end CJ Dippre was the host during Morgan’s visit and the friendship that they built in a short time on campus helped make an eventual return trip feasible. “He really talked about the family of it. They really opened him up and made it feel like family, like open up and be his true self. You could tell he was his true self, just the way he acted around the players, you’d think you’d come in and not try and do anything crazy but he ran around jumping in the hot tub and everything when they opened up the new building.” But as prospects now spend June analyzing whether the virtual pitch they’ve listened to for months aligns with their eventual visits, Morgan admitted his conversations with the current Terps helped solidify their standing.
“The main thing was talking to the players. Usually the players aren’t going to lie. Straight up, if you talk with enough you’ll hear one or a couple try to sell you and then some telling you like it is, I didn’t hear any of that. All I could hear was how inviting they were, how they’ve really turned everything around and how much of a family everyone was.”
Morgan already took in Vanderbilt for an unofficial visit and will head to Tennessee this weekend for his next official. Morgan added he still plans to camp at Auburn and plans to camp at Florida will not come to fruition, but with trips planned to Louisville, Kentucky, and Virginia Tech already in the works, Morgan will spend the ensuing days looking at a return trip to College Park.
“I know they have a couple of camps the first two days of next week and the week after so I might try and make it back for one of those but we haven’t sat down and talked about that as a family. If not, what’s great is I’ve built a great relationship with CJ [Dippre] so if I ever want to go and stay with him and see the players or wait until the fall and go up again.” The return trip comes as Morgan admits he has no lingering questions about the Maryland program.
“No questions. They really answered everything with the academics, the school life and everything.”
Morgan is rated a three-star prospect and an 86 overall by 247Sports, sitting as the 76th-best offensive tackle in the country.
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