South Pointe juggernaut welcomes Dan Morgan back to Rock Hill
Dan Morgan returns to Rock Hill Friday night with his Eastside Eagles football team in tow.
Morgan, who graduated from Northwestern High in 1988 and played and coached under Jimmy Wallace at the school, will try and engineer a monster upset. The Eagles face No. 5-nationally ranked South Pointe, which last lost a playoff game Nov. 29, 2013.
“They’re a great ball club, but we’re excited,” Morgan said. “There is a reason we’re in this game.”
Eastside’s football program and its coach have been rejuvenated this fall. Morgan left Blythewood after last season, describing the situation as having too many cooks in the kitchen. But he’s enjoyed the opposite environment at Eastside (11-1), which has won just four playoff games in the last 38 years.
Feeling the full support of his athletic director, Morgan has guided the Eagles to an 11-win season, scoring over 600 points and earning the school’s first postseason victories since 2003.
“The kids here were looking for direction, for leadership, and we established it,” said Morgan. “But the kids, they’re the ones that bought in and they’re the ones driving it now.”
Wisely for a program trying to build an identity and tradition of success, Eastside has played an easier schedule. The Eagles beat Carolina Academy 69-0 while snapping just 17 plays, thanks to a running clock after the first quarter. Carolina Academy finished the season 0-10.
Compare South Pointe and Eastside’s schedules by clicking through the graphic:
South Pointe is 12-0. But the Stallions, especially their defensive secondary players, aren’t taking Eastside lightly. Not many teams have persistently tried to throw the ball against South Pointe.
“I think there is a reason teams aren’t throwing against them,” Morgan said. “They’re really outstanding. But we’ve got to do what we do well.”
The Eagles plan to see what the Stallion secondary can withstand.
“We know we’re gonna have to stay focused and do our best,” said corner Jamari Currence, who will play college football at James Madison.
“They throw the ball a lot more than the teams we’ve been playing,” said junior Jaylen Mahoney, the Stallions’ other starting corner and another college prospect. “The quarterback’s got a strong arm and he likes to scramble a lot, kind of like...” South Pointe’s quarterback, Derion Kendrick.
During a phone conversation Thursday morning, Morgan raved about Kendrick, the Shrine Bowl-bound, Clemson-committed QB better known by just two letters (D and K), who has made great success look very easy the last four years. Eastside has a QB that plays in a similar style in Jordan Morgan -- no relation to his coach -- who has thrown for nearly 4,000 yards, 45 touchdowns and was selected to the North-South all-star game.
Morgan and Morgan have a good thing working where the coach provides the general direction of each offensive play and the QB makes certain reads. It allows for plenty of improvisation, which has led to two 1,000-yard receivers and a lot of points and wins.
“It scares me to death,” said South Pointe coach Strait Herron. “I’d rather them be an executing-type of offense because you can study what to do.”
Back at Northwestern in the mid-1980s, Morgan’s sister hung out with Herron. The two coaches know each other well and they’ll share a nice chat before the game Friday evening. From there, friendships are shoved aside.
For South Pointe, that means swatting away another upset attempt. There is no room for error now for the three-time defending state champs.
“We just keep harping on the fact that South Pointe’s got to take care of South Pointe,” said Herron. “Yeah, we’ve got good athletes and that’s always what people are gonna say about us. ‘Man, anybody could coach South Pointe.’ But I don’t want to be that way. We coach them hard and want them to be good at what we do. Games like this, it’s about us, going out and executing.”
Besides, South Pointe players and coaches have grown adept at blocking out public opinion about their program, like how badly they should beat any team they play, or how no team has a chance of stopping them from another state title. That may be why so many of the Stallion players are always wearing headphones, their heads bobbing up and down to whatever is in their ears.
“We don’t like losing,” said Currence. “I don’t like losing, the whole team. That’s the main reason we keep playing at high intensity.”
If Morgan can achieve that mindset at Eastside, he’ll be on to sustained success, not just an 11-win season flash in the pan.
This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 3:59 PM with the headline "South Pointe juggernaut welcomes Dan Morgan back to Rock Hill."