SEATTLE — About a decade before he came to plot and manage Washington’s recruiting operation, Courtney Morgan was selling medical devices in Los Angeles and training high school offensive linemen on the weekends. The organization he worked with, B2G Sports, had a 7-on-7 team, and that 7-on-7 team had a prospect who had been overlooked by USC and UCLA.
He wasn’t thought to be fast enough to play safety and was a little undersized for a linebacker. But he knew the game, and he had great film, and teammates gravitated toward his leadership. And so in the absence of interest from the local teams, Narbonne High’s Keishawn Bierria accepted an offer from Steve Sarkisian at Washington. He became a cornerstone of Chris Petersen’s first Pac-12 championship team before becoming a sixth-round NFL Draft pick.
Morgan, UW’s new director of player personnel under new coach Kalen DeBoer, is telling this story in the lobby of the Huskies’ football operations facility because he knows how much talent goes overlooked in his native Southern California, and he knows how well Washington can fare when it finds those kinds of players. While the Huskies must win some recruiting battles for touted prospects in order to compete for Pac-12 championships, it’s the sweet spot where talent and skill meet attainability that seemingly appeals to Morgan most.
“What we have to do here is out-evaluate people,” Morgan said, “and don’t worry about the names.”
Morgan isn’t one of UW’s on-field assistants. He doesn’t coach players or recruit off-campus.