The Closest Thing to a Touchdown
Alex Semadeni
When Jayden Virgin-Morgan recorded his first career sack earlier this season, he remembered wanting desperately to celebrate.
The moment occurred during the first game of the Broncos’ season at Georgia Southern on Aug. 31. Boise State was holding on to a 28-23 lead with 9:16 left in the third quarter, but the Eagles had the momentum after a huge fourth down stop gave them the ball in Bronco territory.
Facing a 1st and 10 on the Boise State 17-yard line, the pocket collapsed around Georgia Southern quarterback JC French, who stepped up to attempt to make a play. Virgin-Morgan quickly released from his blocker and dragged French to the field, resulting in a two-yard loss.
The play was particularly momentous for the San Diego, Calif. native, who had been clamoring to bring a quarterback to the ground after spending the entirety of his redshirt freshman campaign without a sack. But Virgin-Morgan kept it in.
“It was an amazing feeling, but at that time of the game, there was really no time to celebrate,” Virgin-Morgan said. “It was way too close of a game. That sack especially, I give that one to the DBs and the backend. That was more of a coverage sack.”
The sack was the result of a complete offseason overhaul for the multisport athlete. Motivated by the zero next to his name in the sack column, Virgin-Morgan worked tirelessly over the summer to change both his physique and technique so that he could have his celebration moment.
The work has paid off. As the Broncos enter the final game of the regular season on Friday against Oregon State, Virgin-Morgan leads the team with nine sacks on the year, meaning he’s had plenty of plays to make up for the lack of celebration following his first.
“Sacks are the closest thing to getting a touchdown on the defensive end,” he said. “Getting them on a third-down stop, or at the end of the half, that’s something else for sure. There’s nothing like it.”
Virgin-Morgan’s ascension in the EDGE room is impressive, especially considering his high school background. His natural athleticism allowed him to play multiple positions all over the field for Mt. Carmel High School. Throughout his career with the Sundevils, Virgin-Morgan played linebacker, defensive end, tight end and running back. He totaled 144 tackles in three seasons of varsity football, including 20 sacks (16 as a senior). Offensively, he hauled in 73 receptions as a tight end for 1,273 yards and 15 touchdowns. He even made plays on special teams, blocking three punts as a senior.
The all-around talent began picking up notice from collegiate scouts. In the end, he selected the Broncos over several opportunities, citing the noticeable difference in culture the program provided.
“The camaraderie when I came out here on my visit was off the charts,” Virgin-Morgan said. “The vibe that the players gave off, it was different from the other schools that I had visited.”
One of the more dominant players every time he stepped on the field in high school, Virgin-Morgan arrived at fall camp prior to the 2022 season ready to make an impression on his coaches and teammates alike. However, the hyperfocus required for each individual position was a shock to the system for the incoming freshman.
“I originally didn't play much defense or do very many defensive drills throughout my career in high school,” he said. “As soon as I got out here, I started to pick up those EDGE drills, like the one-man sled and the five-man sled. It was difficult to pick that up and see all the older guys just doing it. So truthfully it was kind of intimidating. There was a lot to learn, but I did end up learning pretty fast.”
Though it took some time to get acclimated to some of the drills, Virgin-Morgan loved the idea of competition. He thrived in a lot of the designed competitive environments. and the EDGE room took notice. The group was impressed with Virgin-Morgan's tenacity and quickly accepted him into their ranks.
“There was George Tarlas and Dimitri [Washington] as well as Ahmed," said Virgin-Morgan. "George and Ahmed both played defensive end, but really, having both of those guys as well as Dimitri was great. George and Dmitiri had a bunch of experience. Being able to learn from them and kind of just how they just went about their process through the week was very helpful. It was nice to see how they went about their game process and stuff. I picked up a lot from them.”
Virgin-Morgan appeared in only three games in his first season with the team, allowing him to officially redshirt. He hit the offseason eager to earn a spot on the field.
He worked closely with his teammates to learn different schemes, and spent a lot of time with EDGE coach Jabril Frazier to finetune techniques.
“Coach Frazier has helped out a lot,” Virgin-Morgan said. “He’s very big into pass rush, and he showed me that an active pass rusher is the best pass rusher and that's when you get sacks. If the quarterback still has the ball and you're still going, then you're going to be able to get that sack. Having Coach Frazier as a coach, with the experience and all the good seasons that he has had here at Boise State, it’s great.”
The commitment paid off. He played in all 14 games a season ago, including six starts. He recorded his first solo tackle for loss against San Jose State on Oct. 7 and notched five tackles twice (Wyoming, Oct. 28; Air Force, Nov. 24). His versatility was even on full display when he caught a 21-yard pass on a fake punt at Fresno State on Nov. 4.
“Last year was amazing to get my feet wet,” Virgin-Morgan said. “I didn't know how often I was going to get on the field and thankfully, I was able to play in every game. I didn’t play in as meaningful snaps as this year, but just being able to get in the game, get my feet under me and get comfortable with the defense in a game setting was really nice.”
Despite the success in his first full year on the field, Virgin-Morgan was determined to bring a quarterback to the ground. As soon as the season ended, he developed a full list of techniques that he wanted to improve on and began prioritizing them while planning his offseason regimen.
“I really wanted to improve on my pass rush,” he said. “The technique that we have, the strike-snatch, was something that I wasn't very comfortable with because I wasn't used to it. That wasn't something I had practiced a lot. I know that if I could get that down, it was going to help me out a lot. I focused on not just becoming a speed pass rusher, but being able to stop the run as well. If I could do both effectively it was going to make me more of an effective player and more of a problem.”
On top of the technique improvements, Virgin-Morgan dedicated himself to improving physically. As a redshirt freshman, his goal was to reach 240 pounds. Though he reached the mark, he struggled to maintain it throughout the season.
“Last year, I was still having problems holding on to that 240,” Virgin-Morgan said. “I became very committed to the weight room after that. I knew that I needed to gain a lot of weight, and not food weight, but muscle weight, which helped me a lot. I was definitely in the weight room. That was very important to me. I’m well past that 240 mark now and I'm just happy that I'm able to keep my weight.”
After personally seeing the improvements in both technique and in the weight room, Virgin-Morgan came to spring ball ready to showcase the difference he had made.
“I had a really good spring ball coming off of last season,” he said. “That kind of gave me a really big confidence boost. That allowed me to come into this recent fall camp kind of rolling. I had my feet under me, and I was really comfortable with how the defense works and the players that I was playing with as well. It all was just a really big confidence boost going into the season.”
That hard work paid off in the first game of the season against the Panthers. On top of recording his long-sought-after sack, Virgin-Morgan matched his career-high with five tackles (he would later record six at Hawaii on Oct. 12).
He didn’t record a sack over the next two games, but finished with 1.5 against Washington State in the fourth game of the season. His most recent surge began at Hawaii, where he registered 2.5 sacks (and a career-high six tackles), starting a streak of four games where he recorded at least one sack.
“I'd say I'm on a roll right now,” he said. “Really, I’m just comfortable. Not comfortable as in there’s nothing I can do to get better, but comfortable with the guys around me, comfortable with the defense we’re playing and the different pressures that we have. I feel comfortable dropping back if I need to. I feel like I’m on a roll, but I also have so much more that I can obtain. That’s what’s fun to think about.”
“Jayden Virgin-Morgan is playing his absolute best football these past two weeks, end of story. I cannot [sic] be more proud of him because he does it in practice. If you just take the time to watch the entire game and watch Jayden, he’s playing relentless. Now it’s our job to continually turn the heat up and make sure he doesn’t get complacent.”Spencer Danielson during weekly press conference on Oct. 28.
Not only is his improvement being documented statistically with tackles and sacks, Virgin-Morgan is making plays that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Plays that save touchdowns, and arguably, plays that save games.
In a high-profile road matchup against UNLV on Oct. 25, quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams threw a backwards pass to backup quarterback Cameron Friel. Friel then attempted a pass back to Williams, who had a ton of open space between himself and the end zone. However, Virgin-Morgan reacted quickly to the play, jumping in front of Williams to cause an incompletion.
“We didn't really practice a cut block from the offensive line early in that week, so that threw me off first,” Virgin-Morgan said. “I thought, ‘Alright, this is kind of weird. Why is he cutting me?’ We already knew that there were two quarterbacks in the game and I remembered that I saw a quarterback cross my face. I thought, ‘This is not right.’ I kind of just stopped and turned and as that happened, I thought that he was probably throwing the ball to the other quarterback. I sprinted toward the quarterback that was getting the ball thrown to him. I wish I would have taken a few more steps and tried to catch it instead of stopping and jumping. But I'm just happy that I was able to realize the fact that it was even happening.”
If the pass had been completed, there’s a good chance UNLV likely would have scored a touchdown on the play. The Broncos ended up winning the game 29-24.
“On that double throwback, if Jayden doesn’t retrace his steps and tip it, it is a walk-in touchdown,” head coach Spencer Danielson said about the play during his weekly press conference after the game. “He could have bearcrawled into the end zone. Jayden’s a super savvy football player. He saw the quarterback roll out late. He smelled a rat and was able to get his foot on the ground and tip the ball.”
With Jayden Virgin-Morgan’s emergence in the backfield, offenses have had to choose between stopping him or last year’s leading tackler and returning All-Mountain West honoree Ahmed Hassanein.
The result? Both get to benefit.
“Being able to have two very effective pass rushers as well as run stoppers on the edge is great,” Virgin-Morgan said. “I mean you have to block people to keep them away from the quarterback. And if you put a 1-on-1 on either Ahmed or me, it's going to be a problem. After the season he had last year, most of the time they’re going to max protect him. They’ll have the offensive tackle as well as the tight end blocking him, or maybe the offensive tackle and the running back, so that he doesn’t have a 1-on-1 with the tackle. Or they’ll have the guard come in and try to chip him. Whatever it is, they’re bringing a lot to his side.
“What that means for me is that I’m most likely getting a 1-on-1, which makes it way easier for me to get to the quarterback. Since I’ve been working on being more effective in the pass rush, I’ve been starting to get sacks and put some more pressure on the quarterback. That makes it so Ahmed has open lanes because they’re going to want to start blocking me. Eventually, the offense is just going to have to realize that there’s a problem on both sides and they’re just going to have to play their offense. It’s not like they can keep everybody in and block both of us at the same time.”
The scheming from defensive coordinator Erik Chinander, who routinely loves disguising and mixing blitz packages, has also helped elevate Virgin-Morgan’s game.
“Coach Chinander is very big on pressures,” he said. “You can see it. We have Seyi Oladipo who has 5.5 sacks as a safety. That’s something else. We have a lot of our corners getting sacks. A lot of our other safeties are getting sacks. That’s on top of our defensive tackles and our defensive ends. We have a very, very diverse defense. I love how aggressive Coach Chins is with the pressures.”
As the Broncos prepare for an Oregon State team that is fighting for bowl eligibility on Friday, Virgin-Morgan knows the defense is going to have to step up and make some plays. He’s also confident that the work he has put in individually, combined with the work the team puts forth as a whole on a weekly basis, has Boise State prepared for the moment.
“I’m really excited,” Virgin-Morgan said. "It’s the Friday of Thanksgiving week, 10 a.m. kickoff. It’s going to be fun for sure. We might not have as many students as usual, because it's Thanksgiving break, but I know we're going to have a lot of family. I'm excited for that game for sure.”
