Oklahoma to hire sought-after Big Ten assistant as new DB coach, per report
By Mark Kern
Published:
Oklahoma has been extremely busy this off-season, as the Sooners look to build off last season’s appearance in the College Football Playoff.
OU head coach Brent Venables has made multiple changes to his staff, including hiring former Dallas Cowboys legend Jason Witten as the program’s new tight ends coach. On Wednesday, he made another big move, hiring former Michigan assistant LaMar Morgan to be the new defensive backs coach at Oklahoma.
The news was first reported by former OU players Gabe Ikard and Teddy Lehman.
Morgan had been at Michigan the last 2 seasons as the defensive pass game coordinator and the defensive backs coach. Morgan began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Vanderbilt in 2012. He coached safeties at Houston (2018) and corners for Billy Napier at Louisiana (2019-20) before returning to Vandy as a corners coach in 2021. In 2022, he began a 2-year run as the defensive coordinator at Louisiana.
Morgan is replacing former OU defensive backs coach Jay Valai, who left Norman earlier this offseason after 4 years take the same position with the Buffalo Bills.
The Sooners ranked seventh in the country in scoring defense last year, as well as fourth in yards per play allowed. With Venables as the coach, the Sooners figure to always have one of college football’s better defenses, and adding Morgan to the staff should maintain that standard.
