Oklahoma Sooners, Brent Venables turn to familiar foe to hire intriguing coach with plenty of upside to replace NFL-bound coach
The Sooners have filled their final opening on staff with a hire from left field.
The Oklahoma Sooners have run a long search to try and replace cornerbacks coach Jay Valai, who left the program two weeks ago to take the same job with the Buffalo Bills.
They plucked his replacement away from a familiar foe, hiring former Michigan Wolverines defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan. Morgan was hired by former Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore but was not retained by new head coach Kyle Whittingham.
LaMar Morgan has plenty of talent to work with at Oklahoma
Morgan arrived at Michigan from the University of Louisiana program, where he spent two seasons (2022-23) as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach. Before that, he was the cornerbacks coach at Vanderbilt in 2021.
He steps in to coach a room with plenty of talent returning from last season. Oklahoma has their starting trio set at cornerback, with Eli Bowen and Courtland Guillory manning the outside and Jacobe Johnson at nickel. Behind them, however, are plenty of youngsters the Sooners are excited about in players like Trystan Haynes and Jeremiah Newcombe as well as Oregon transfer Dakoda Fields.
Morgan will have plenty of talent to work with, and he was a strong recruiter with the Wolverines, pulling in several elite recruits like Shamari Earls, Kainoa Winston, and Jordan Young to Ann Arbor.
Why did Venables hire LaMar Morgan?
I have my fair share of concerns about his development ability, considering just how poor Michigan’s secondary was over the last two seasons. However, Venables hasn’t erred on a single hire defensively with the Sooners, and he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Michigan’s secondary was riddled with coverage busts, and both starting cornerbacks in Zeke Berry and Jyaire Hill were remarkably inconsistent. Most of it was the safety room, which admittedly Morgan did have to completely rebuild. It’s a fair cause for concern considering I never saw a player really improve in the secondary over the course of his two seasons there.
Again, however, Venables is a much smarter man than I am. If he sees something in Morgan, who am I to throw stones? I’m just not going to mince analysis and strive to be as honest as possible. Perhaps Venables recognized similar to me that Wink Martindale’s defense was just bad in general and was never going to put players in good spots, something he doesn’t have to worry about.
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