The Star's longtime columnist on how Jordan Morgan rose from afterthought to an NFL first-round pick, why Trey Townsend is exactly what the UA men's basketball program needs, Brent Brennan's financial education course, additional rings could be in the future for Heather Moore-Martin, a good decision by Pima College, and more.
Greg Hansen is the longtime sports columnist for the Arizona Daily Star and Tucson.com.
Working with Kyle Quinn changed course of Jordan Morgan's path — to the NFL
Into the life of each NFL first-round draft pick, some good fortune must flow.
For Jordan Morgan, it might’ve been when he began his senior year at Marana High School and was introduced to the Tigers’ new offensive line coach, Kyle Quinn.
Quinn, a team captain, had been Arizona’s starting center behind quarterback Nick Foles. Quinn then spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals before returning to Tucson to earn a master's degree. From 2015-17, he became a graduate assistant on the UA football teams.
How often does a high school lineman benefit from that sort of high-level expertise?
Quinn has the “it’’ factor, a personable, likeable man married to former Arizona All-American pitcher Kenzie Fowler. He forged a bond with Morgan and helped guide him from a 1-star prospect — his first two college offers were from South Dakota State and NAU — to a rising star that was offered scholarships by USC, Arizona and ASU.
Sophomore offensive lineman Jordan Morgan (77) listens to fellow teammate junior Tyson Gardner (79) about a practice drill during football practice at Arizona Stadium, 1 N. National Championship Dr., in Tucson, Ariz., on October 16, 2020.
“I coached Jordan at Marana his senior year, and from Day 1 knew he was a special talent,’’ says Quinn, now an engineering lab manager at Raytheon. “Offensive line is one of the hardest positions to play in sports, but Jordan’s athleticism makes it look effortless.
“He’s a great leader great leader and teammate, humble as can be and motivated to play to the best of his abilities.’’
Those qualities became apparent during Morgan’s five seasons at Arizona, the last two spent as a team captain. He made a strong impression on Jedd Fisch, who endorsed Morgan to Green Bay Packers offensive line coach Luke Butkus, one of Fisch’s many former NFL colleagues.
Fisch and Butkus coached together with the 2010 Seattle Seahawks and the 2013 Jacksonville Jaguars. They speak the same language, and Fisch’s endorsement certainly helped Morgan become Green Bay’s first-round selection, No. 25 overall, on Thursday.
According to the NFL’s rookie salary structure, Morgan will be offered a $14.2 million contract for 2024 of which $7.1 is guaranteed. He thus joins a select class of 25 Tucson prep football players to be drafted. Here’s the roll call from the highest selection to the lowest:
8. Bijan Robinson, RB, Salpointe, 2023, Atlanta.
22. Mike Dawson, DL, Tucson, 1976, St. Louis.
25. Jordan Morgan, OL, Marana, 2024, Green Bay.
29. John Fina, OL, Salpointe, 1992, Buffalo.
31. Vance Johnson, WR, Cholla, 1985, Denver.
32. Mark Arneson, LB, Palo Verde, 1972, St. Louis.
42. Brooks Reed, DL, Sabino, 2011, Houston.
Tennessee Titans linebacker Brooks Reed, a Sabino High grad, celebrates a sack against Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in January 2021.
44. Mario Bates, RB, Amphi, 1994, New Orleans.
47. Fred Enke, QB, Tucson, 1947, Detroit.
59. John Mistler, WR, Sabino, 1981, NY Giants.
82. Paul Robinson, RB, Marana, 1968, Cincinnati.
82. Steve McLaughlin, K, Sahuaro, 1995, St. Louis.
83. Sean Harris, LB, Tucson, 1995, Chicago.
117. Riki Elliison, LB, Amphi, 1983, San Francisco.
117. Ka’Deem Carey, RB, CDO, 2014, Chicago.
131. Blake Martinez, LB, CDO, 2016, Green Bay.
138. Rich Griffith, TE, Catalina, 1993, New England.
140. Mike Scurlock, DB, Sunnyside, 1995, St. Louis.
141. Rodney Peete, QB, Sahuaro, 1989, Detroit.
150. Michael Bates, WR, Amphi, 1992, Seattle.
177. Sam Merriman, LB, Amphi, 1983, Seattle.
194. Leonard Thompson, WR, 1975, Detroit.
212. Michael Smith, RB, Sunnyside, 2012, Tampa Bay.
307. Jim Arneson, OL, Palo Verde, 1973, Dallas.
309. David Adams, RB, Sunnyside, 1987, Indianapolis.
Townsend just what Arizona needs
When 6-foot 6-inch Horizon League Player of the Year Trey Townsend indicated he would transfer from the Oakland Golden Grizzlies to Arizona last week, it was an acquisition that fits a big need on Tommy Lloyd’s basketball roster.
Trey Townsend shoots over Milwaukee forward Darius Duffy during a March game. Townsend’s game should blend in well with Arizona’s 2024-25, which already has enough long-distance shooters.
Townsend isn’t going to cast up dozens of 3-pointers. He only attempted 32 last season. The UA has plenty of distance shooters.
What the UA didn’t have is what Townsend can provide: If you watch video of him, he has footwork like former UCLA star Jaime Jaquez. He pivots, re-pivots, gets a defender airborne with pump fakes, and has a turn-around, fade-away game. Plus, he gets to the foul line. He was 14 for 18 from the foul line in the Horizon League finals.
Townsend had a 17-12 double-double in an NCAA Tournament upset over No. 3-seeded Kentucky and followed with a 30-13 double-double against North Carolina State. Earlier in the year, against Sean Miller’s Xavier club, Townsend scored 28.
Plus, he’s physical, a 22-year-old with 129 career starts at Oakland. Playing in the Horizon League isn’t glamorous, but remember this. The league’s former players of the year include Butler’s Gordon Hayward, a lottery pick who played 15 NBA seasons and Xavier’s Brian Grant, also a lottery pick who played 12 NBA seasons.
Brennan provides financial education
The differences between former UA football coach Fisch and first-year UA coach Brent Brennan were on display last week.
On Wednesday, Fisch used social media platforms to tout the robust NFL salaries of former Washington Huskies players Vita Vea and Shaq Thompson. On the same day, Brennan introduced UA football players to Ross “Mac Shareef’’ McDonald, star of the Netflix series “Get Smart With Money.’’
Brennan
McDonald spent about an hour talking to UA football players — some of them thought to have NIL deals of $100,000 plus — about making the best of your financial situation.
McDonald, a graduate of Penn’s Ivy League Wharton School of Business, has 15 years experience as an investor and Wall Street professional. On his Netflix series, he says his aim is to increase access to financial education and spread a fundamental understanding of finances from a beginner’s perspective.
It was a timely move by Brennan in a game increasingly given over to outside money. I mean, have you seen quarterback Noah Fifita’s TV commercial for the Tucson International Airport yet?
Salpointe state title coach will be back for ‘Moore’
Heather Moore-Martin coached Salpointe Catholic’s beach volleyball team to its fourth consecutive state championship last week — her 10th overall state title as a coach — and quickly ended speculation that she might walk away on top.
“Yep,’’ she said when asked if she would seek title No. 11.
Moore-Martin isn’t winning title after title by good fortune. She has built one of the top high school coaching staffs in Arizona. Her husband, Keith Martin, has been one of Tucson’s leading volleyball coaches for 25 years. Also on her staff is Kevin Rountree, who was a key part of Moore-Martin’s 2010 and 2011 boys volleyball state championship teams at Catalina High School.
Plus, this year she added Jalynn Ransom, who played for her Salpointe girls volleyball state title team, and also has four-time NJCAA national championship softball coach Stacy Iveson as a “ confidant.’’
Moore-Martin is now one of eight Tucson coaches to win 10 or more state championships. The list:
Salpointe beach volleyball coach Heather Moore-Martin isn't stepping down; she is already planning a run toward state title No. 11.
15 — Bobby DeBerry, Sunnyside wrestling.
14 — Kristie Stevens, Catalina Foothills girls tennis.
13 — Doc Van Horne, Tucson High track and field.
12 — Nicole Sayers-Penkalski, Catalina Foothills boys and girls swimming.
10 — Sue Clark, Tucson High girls tennis; Wolfgang Weber, Salpointe boys soccer; Hank Slagle, Tucson High baseball; Moore-Martin, two boys volleyball titles at Catalina; three girls volleyball titles at Salpointe; four beach volleyball titles at Salpointe; one beach volleyball pairs championship at Salpointe.
Short stuff: Ken Jacome a good fit for Pima, Bob Baffert denied again, UA softball attendance falls
• Pima College’s decision to hire baseball coach Ken Jacome as its athletic director works several ways. First, Jacome has one of the best coaching staffs in NJCAA baseball: Oscar Romero, who won a city-record 488 games at Tucson High School; Keith Francis, who coached CDO to the 2002 state championships and spent time on Andy Lopez’s UA coaching staff; and Jason Jacome, Ken’s brother, who pitched four MLB seasons for Kansas City, Cleveland and the New York Mets. In addition, Pima College’s highly successful women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus has spent the last several years working part-time in the AD department, helping now-retired Jim Monaco, and will continue in that role.
Ken Jacome, head coach of the Pima Community College baseball team, will also be PCC's athletic director, the school announced last week before introducing Jacome publicly at a press conference Tuesday in Tucson.
• One piece of bad news for the Pima College athletic department last week: First-team All-American point guard Rylei Waugh committed to play for San Jose State next season and apparently will not return for her sophomore season with the Aztecs. Waugh, who scored a school-record 43 points in the NJCAA consolation championship game last month, is a game-changer. With her, the Aztecs would’ve probably been ranked close to No. 1 entering the 2024-25 season.
• The lords of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby continue to bar UA grad and Nogales native Bob Baffert from this week’s Kentucky Derby. Last week, the Churchill Downs board refused Baffert’s appeal to be eligible for Saturday’s race. The six-time Kentucky Derby winner was suspended in 2021 when Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit was found to have ingested an illegal substance, one Baffert insists was unknown to him. Baffert, 71 probably has the top horse, Muth, in the Class of 2024, and is expected to be approved to run Muth in the Preakness on May 18.
• Reflected by its combined Pac-12 softball records of 38-55 the last three seasons, Arizona’s attendance at Hillenbrand Stadium has dropped below 2,000 this season (1,971) for the first time since 2018 (not counting COVID seasons of 2020 and 2021). Coach Caitlin Lowe’s pitching-challenged program entered Saturday’s game at UCLA with a hard-to-believe 137-126 record in the Pac-12 dating to conference expansion in 2012. Perhaps things will be easier in the Big 12 next year; in the current Top 25 rankings, only Oklahoma State is ranked among those who will be part of the Big 12 next year. Remember this: Kansas State, Cincinnati, TCU and West Virginia don’t have softball programs.
Arizona's Tayler Biehl scores during a February game against North Texas. After a 10-2 loss at UCLA on Friday, the Wildcats are 12-10 in Pac-12 play this season.
• Arizona’s NCAA championship women’s golf team of 2018 will be strongly represented in the LPGA Epson Tour’s 54-hole tournament at the Sewailo Golf Club that begins Thursday. Ex-Wildcat champions of 2018 Haley Moore, Gigi Stoll, Vivian Hou and Yu-Sang Hou are in the field of 144 golfers that will play for the $250,000 purse. Stoll won the Epson championship at Sewailo last year. She has earned $194,820 in her Epson Tour career, tops among the ex-Wildcats.
My two cents: Clancy Shields could be in high demand
Clancy Shields has coached Arizona’s men’s tennis team to three consecutive Pac-12 regular-season championships. That’s rare territory. Shields’ teams have gone 25-5 in the conference in that period entering Saturday’s Pac-12 tournament championship match against Stanford. Only four other teams in UA history have won three or more Pac-10/12 championships consecutively:
• Lute Olson’s men’s basketball teams of 1988-91.
• Mike Candrea’s softball teams of 2003-05.
• Greg Allen’s UA women’s golf teams of 2000-02.
• Frank Busch’s women’s swimming teams of 2006-08.
Do you think Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne, the man who hired Shields away from Utah State eight years ago, is keeping a watch on Shields? That’s a no-brainer even though Shields is paid $175,000 base salary, which is more than Alabama men’s tennis coach George Husack, who was paid $140,000 last year. Money is no issue at ’Bama.
Schools with big pockets, like Alabama, could reach out to UA men’s tennis coach Clancy Shields, whose team is 23-3 this year.
Alabama was eliminated from the SEC men’s tennis tournament in the first round last week and the Crimson Tide have gone 24-51 in SEC matches dating to 2016. They were 0-12 two years ago. They are 17-12 overall this year, including 6-6 in the SEC.
Byrne has the financial resources to turn Shields’ head and hire him a second time. Stay tuned.
Arizona head coach Brent Brennan spoke with reporters ahead of the Wildcats' spring game at Arizona Stadium on Saturday. (Video by Justin Spears / Arizona Daily Star)
Tucson Roadrunners forward Hunter Drew scores in the third period on Friday, April 26, 2024, at Tucson Arena to cut into the Calgary Wranglers' lead. But it wasn't enough, as the Wranglers held on for a 4-3 win to clinch a 2-0 best-of-three series victory in the opening round of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs. (Video courtesy Tucson Roadrunners)
