Earlier this week, West Point hired Brett Morgan to be its new football coach. It’s one of the most coveted jobs in the state, and West Point made a home-run hire. This will be Morgan’s first head coaching gig, but that’s irrelevant. He’s been on staff since 2009 and has served as offensive coordinator since 2015, and if there’s one thing that defined the Chris Chambless era, it was continuity.
Chambless led the Green Wave for 18 seasons, which easily makes him the longest-tenured coach in program history. The second-longest stretch belongs to Bubba Davis (1981-92), who led West Point to four state championships.
Chambless had a record of 206-45 and earned seven titles, including the Class 5A crown this past fall. He announced his retirement soon after the season ended. For a lot of programs, losing a coach of Chambless’ caliber could spell trouble, but things work differently at West Point.
Morgan expects the entire coaching staff to reman intact. Most of the assistants have been there a good while. Like I said, continuity is a big part of this program.
And if anyone knows his football, it’s Morgan, a former Mississippi State player who also served as a graduate assistant coach for the Bulldogs. He played for his father, Robert Morgan, at Warren Central. Robert Morgan led the Vikings for 19 seasons, and Brett’s brother, Josh, has been head coach there since 2010.
In other words, Brett Morgan knows what it means to commit for the long haul. After his time as a GA in Starkville, he was hired by Chambless to coach wide receivers. He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2015 and kept West Point’s vaunted rushing attack humming at high levels.
Working under Chambless for so long prepared Morgan for this job better than any other coaching experience could have.
“Seeing how our team and our program has been run on a day-to-day basis and how he handles everything, how he handles problems, how he deals with people – there’s so much that we’ve learned and I’ve learned from him,” Morgan said.
At just 40 years old, Morgan has a lot of good years ahead of him. I don’t know if he’ll keep at it for as long as Chambless did, but expect him to stick around awhile. That’s the West Point way.
Brad Locke is a senior sports writer with the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
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