David Morgan II: UTSA's Conan the Barbarian
Years from now when some enterprising follower of the program decides to construct – not literally, probably – a Mount Rushmore for the UTSA Roadrunners, there will be a great amount of debate surrounding who belongs on this mythical monument. You would only get four spots, so it would have to go to the very best of the best that the program has to offer. There are probably a couple of shoo-ins for those spots and David Morgan II would absolutely be one of them.
He came to UTSA like a Paul Bunyan-esque folk hero. A first team all-district and All-Centex wide receiver from Marble Falls, Morgan came to campus and almost immediately began to make himself known across the college football landscape. He made the move to tight end his freshman year and played in all 10 games in the inaugural 2011 campaign highlighted with a brilliant 63-yard catch and run in the opening game against Northeastern State.
After injury derailed his 2012 campaign, Morgan came bigger, stronger, and even faster. Like UTSA's own version of Conan the Barbarian, with brown locks flowing majestically behind him as as he barreled toward the endzone. He became both Eric Soza and Dalton Sturm's go-to target as he racked up accolade after accolade such as becoming a 2015 second-team All-American and 2015 second-team All-Conference USA honoree and becoming the first-ever UTSA player to be drafted into the NFL in the 2016 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings.
Bottom line, David Morgan II is the man! Recently, he took some time to talk to Birds Up about choosing UTSA over two other hated rivals, bulking up while with the Roadrunners, and the food scene in the Twin Cities.
EM: So, David, weird question right off the bat, looking at you now you're a huge guy. Obviously, that's kind of a prerequisite for NFL tight ends, but were you always a big guy? As a kid, were you a big or at least bigger kid?
DM: Yeah, I was always tall. I mean, I was never the biggest kid, but I was always taller. Growing up, I was pretty skinny but I was definitely ahead of the curve compared to most kids. I wasn't anything freakishly tall, but I hit a bigger growth spurt when I was in the middle of high school.
EM: How did the recruitment process go for you and how did you decide to ultimately come here to UTSA?
DM: It was a little different experience for me. Marble Falls wasn't always pumping out a lot of D1 football players or anything like that. I ended up having three offers coming out of high school, UTSA, Texas State, and UTEP where UTEP was my first choice and UTSA was my last. I ended up taking a visit to UTEP and thought it was a cool school, but at the end of the day I didn't want to go that far away from my family. I kind of wanted to be close to everybody.
Texas State and UTSA were pretty close and I was kind of committed to them. They offered me a scholarship during football season and UTSA didn't come around until basketball season actually. [Offensive coordinator Kevin] Brown and [tight ends coach Travis] Bush were the ones that came around. The first play, they walked into the gym and I stole the ball and frickin' dunked it on a guy. I was like this is gonna be good.
I went on an official visit that weekend and they offered me that weekend. I committed that weekend. I knew that was the place I wanted to be. I really enjoyed visiting San Antonio as a kid, I grew up a Spurs fan and stuff like that, and I felt like this was the place for me. To get to be a pioneer and a trailblazer of something special. I was so thankful to that staff for giving me the chance.
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