Former Hawkeye Assistant To Be Honored
December 4th, 2023 by Asa Lucas
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Former University of Iowa assistant football coach Reese Morgan will be a recipient of the 2024 Tom Osborne Legacy Award. Morgan will be honored at the 78th Outland Trophy banquet on Jan. 10, 2024, in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Osborne Legacy Award goes to honorees involved in promoting interior line play on the field and showed leadership and integrity off the field. The award, which was established in 2015, is named after the Cornhuskers’ legendary head coach from 1973-97.
Morgan was an assistant coach at the University of Iowa for 19 years before retiring in 2019. He coached tight ends for three years, offensive line for nine years and defensive line for seven years. During his coaching career, Morgan coached three Outland winners (Chad Hennings at Benton Community High School, who won the award at Air Force in 1987; and Iowa’s Robert Gallery in 2003 and Brandon Scherff in 2014). Morgan had seven players named first- or second-team All-America and five players were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. He also coached John Mackey Award honoree Dallas Clark.
While Morgan was on Iowa’s coaching staff, the Hawkeyes appeared in 16 bowl games, including 11 January contests, and the 2015 Big Ten Championship Game. Iowa earned a share of the Big Ten title in 2002 and 2004.
Prior to coaching the Hawkeyes, Morgan won large-class state titles in 1995, 1998 and 1999 during an eight-year tenure as head coach at Iowa City West High School.
Two past recipients of the award include coaches with Hawkeye ties — Barry Alvarez (2023) and Bill Snyder (2021). Other honorees include: Milt Tenopir, Jim Ridlon, Barry Switzer, Bobby Bowden, Frank Solich, Fisher DeBerry and Will Shields.