By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Josiah Morgan does not remember the “thinking” part. He just remembers the ball in the air.
In what will go down as one of the greatest catches in the history of the renowned rivalry, the Ruston High senior wide receiver’s catch against Neville on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, put the Bearcats over the top and capped off a comeback win after Ruston trailed 37-20 with just over eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter and won 41-37. Morgan, who is headed to Baylor to play college ball, said the moment started with something other than the catch itself.
“When I found out the ball was coming to me, I was just happy that the coaches and my teammates — everybody — were trusting in me to make that play,” Morgan said. “When I turned around and saw the ball in the air, it was just instincts from then on. It’s the best feeling I’ve ever felt playing football, and that’s what I continue to strive for.”
The moment carried extra weight. Morgan spent his early years in Monroe and attended Neville Junior High School before enrolling at Ruston High as a freshman.
“Most of my family in Monroe went to Neville, and I knew all of those boys from junior high,” Morgan said. “So it was a special moment.”
Receivers coach B.J. Phillips was coaching the offensive line at the time and watched the play develop from a different angle. The call came from offensive coordinator Earl Griffin.
“The play before, we were running a similar concept and we saw the safety cheat over the top to account for Ahmad (Hudson),” Phillips said. “We got on the headsets as coaches and talked about having something that bent back up underneath. With the player Josiah is, that’s a perfect play for him. We kind of knew what they were going to do defensively, Coach Griffin called a great play, and a great player made a great play in a big-time situation.”
Around the program, Morgan answers to a nickname his coaches and teammates do not quite agree on how to spell. Morgan writes it “Jo.” Phillips writes it “Joe.” Morgan said he answers to both.
Phillips moved into the receivers room this season, which changed the relationship.
“Last year was my first year at Ruston, so I got to kind of watch him from afar,” Phillips said. “I could see all the things he could do and the type of leader he was — vocal, extremely happy-go-lucky, always smiling, always working hard. Now I’m in the room with him every day, and I get to put all the pieces together.”
What Phillips found up close was a player whose reputation as a deep threat undersells the rest of it.
“He’s a really great route runner. He leans really well in his routes, and he can get guys turned around,” Phillips said. “He catches almost everything thrown in his direction. He’s the ultimate player you want when you think about a receiver, because he can outrun you, and he can use his body and his leverage. Even if you have tight coverage, he’s still going to come down with it.”
Bearcat head coach Jerrod Baugh sees the same skill set from the other side of the ball — and said it changes what defenses are able to do against Ruston even on nights when Morgan’s name is missing from the stat sheet.
“Josiah is very scary to me from a defensive standpoint, knowing that he can run and take the top off of everything,” Baugh said. “Teams are very aware of that, so they try to stay on top, which opens up things underneath. There are a lot of times where Josiah may not be open, but he’s getting a lot of defensive coverage being mindful of that, and that pushes people deep and opens up things for other players.”
The same calculation runs through the rest of the Ruston roster, Baugh said. Senior tight end Ahmad Hudson pulls coverage for a different reason, and what that opens up tends to show up in the running game, where the Bearcats lean on tailbacks underneath.
“It’s like Ahmad — what does he have?” Baugh said. “Well, he’s tall and can jump, and people are afraid to jump with him. Most of the time that requires double coverage out of them, which opens up some other things in the running game. Are they taking a guy out of the box to put out there with him? That opens up things for other guys. There’s just a lot of pieces. As a defensive football team, these teams have to decide. They’re picking and choosing how they’re going to handle this guy, this guy and this guy, and it’s going to be different every week.”
That was the story against Longview, where Morgan finished without the numbers most fans would call a good night. Baugh said the senior handled it the way he has handled most things.
“He handles it well– I’m not saying he’s not disappointed, because there’s a difference,” Baugh said. “That whole group wants to be productive and wants to help their football team win, and they feel like part of that is catching footballs and running footballs and scoring touchdowns. It’s hard for a high school kid to understand that part of my production tonight was that.”
Morgan’s own read on the start of his senior season is that the best of it is still ahead.
“Through the first two games, including the jamboree, I feel like it’s been a pretty good season for me so far, but I’m expecting to do a lot more,” Morgan said. “Going forward, I just want to do what I know I can do and put my talent on display.”
Off the field, Morgan keeps a short list: family, friends, fishing, the weight room and his faith. He grew up fishing behind ULM with his uncle in Monroe and now goes to a spot in Grambling with a friend. He has two brothers and two sisters.
The faith came first, he said, and then it became his own.
“From a young age, my grandma, my mom and my dad always instilled it in me,” Morgan said. “Then it got to an age where certain adversities came my way, and I had to lean on God on my own. It changed my life — being able to realize that everything I have, the talents I have, the opportunity to go to college, is all from Him.”
That was part of what drew him to Baylor.
“It’s the relationships with the coaches, and the way they value person over player,” Morgan said. “Football is just a thing that we do. It’s not who I am. That was a big thing to me — my life after football. And the development they offer, you can get a lot from Baylor.”
For Baugh, that is close to the whole point of what Morgan gives a team, whether it shows up in a box score or not.
“Production level for me is not always 10 catches for 180 yards and three touchdowns,” Baugh said. “A lot of times production level is, what attributes do they have that other people are afraid of?”
