Mississippi State Safety C.J. Morgan Plays a Role Much Bigger Than Football for Bulldogs

Morgan has had an impact on Mississippi State in more ways than one.

Before C.J. Morgan was a football player at Mississippi State, he worked at a Zaxby's. 

While the safety laughingly says that he wanted to be a cook so that he could sneak chicken fingers in the back, his manager made him stay up front at the register because of the impression he made upon people and his ability to talk to them.

That ability has served him well beyond customer service and the food industry, though, as he's become someone everyone on the team feels like they can lean on and have important personal conversations with.

Morgan does this in many ways, from helping calm his teammates down when things get heated in practice to answering their questions about much heavier life topics.

"Something as simple as grabbing a teammate who is fighting and carrying them away, Morgan said. "A lot of guys come to me with questions about The Bible and I tend to answer those questions. Sometimes, folks just need a shoulder to lean on, somebody to talk to, somebody to vent to. I find that I've played that role."

Cornerbacks coach Darcel McBath is one person who has noticed Morgan's effect on his teammates. 

"He's done a great job of coming back and being a leader for our team and doing whatever it takes to get on the field," McBath said. "He's like a coach on the field, he has an old soul. He's very mature, very positive with these young guys."

Morgan serves as a lifter for those around him and always seems chipper, but perhaps what makes his mindset even more impressive is how he's stayed consistently positive despite adversity. He faced a severe setback when he suffered a knee injury in November of 2019 that kept him off the field for nearly two years.

He's back this year with the extra year of eligibility the NCAA granted players due to COVID, and is optimistic about the future.

"My positivity really just comes from my spirituality. I'm a real spiritual person," Morgan said. "I know that this life we live is just a test, so I feel like if you're living your life to the fullest and you're being positive, positive things will happen to you. Even if the positive thing I'm looking for hasn't necessarily happened to me yet, I know if I maintain my mindset, maintain my leadership ability, my ability to be a good role model to my teammates, those positive things will come back to me ten-fold."

Morgan has seen a lot in his time in Starkville, which he said "feels like 12 years." He's been with the Bulldogs since his freshman year of 2016 when he took a redshirt.

Since then, Morgan has played under three very different head coaches -- Dan Mullen, Joe Moorhead and Mike Leach.

"I've been here longer than I was at my high school. So, this is honestly like first-and-a-half home to me," Morgan said. "I've been through three head coaches now, so we've gone from extremely hard to lenient to extremely hard again."

With these changes comes a need for adaptation and exposes a player's true ability to do just that.

"You can look at it one of two ways, you can tuck your tail in and hide or you can embrace the hard work," Morgan said. "There's been a lot of adapting, but a real man overcomes."

Even with the amount of turnover there's been within the coaching staff at certain times, the culture that Mississippi State is founded upon always remains the same in Morgan's eyes.

"There's a lot of things that change, but one thing that never changes about Mississippi State is the culture," Morgan said. "It's predicated on hard work. You come in, you get your work done, you get extra work in and at the end of the day you feel accomplished because you've earned what you have."

Like so many other players who have played collegiately, Morgan wants to take the next step in the sport after his career at Mississippi State is over.

But if that doesn't work out (or perhaps even if it does, for plans later on down the line) Morgan has meaningful goals for his future and wants to accomplish something historical.

"I'm in the process of finishing my master's degree," Morgan said. "And if I'm unfortunately not playing football in the future, the plan is to go to law school. I want to be a personal injury lawyer and go back to my hometown of Bossier City, Louisiana and start my own firm. After that, I want to start my bid to become the first Black mayor of my hometown."