Jordan Morgan signed up for football on a whim. Now, he’s headed to the Chicago Bears.

Update: Morgan was drafted in the fifth round by the Chicago Bears.

With a 7-0 lead against West Chester last season, Kutztown University head coach Jim Clements dialed up a screen. It was the same play Jordan Morgan, the Golden Bears’ left tackle, struggled with earlier in practice that week. But Morgan didn’t worry about the play call. His job was simple: Go out there and deliver a bone-crushing block.

Before quarterback Collin DiGalbo fired a quick pass to receiver Kellen Williams, Morgan — the lead blocker on the play — got out of his stance, saw a defender streaking toward Williams, and viciously drove him into the turf.

That big-time block sprung Williams loose for a 39-yard touchdown to give the Golden Bears a commanding 13-0 lead.

“As a player, I would just describe myself as a tenacious lineman [who] likes to get after it,” Morgan told SB Nation.

Morgan’s journey is different from most of the other prospects in this year’s draft class. He went from a senior in high school with no prior football experience to a staple on the Division II school’s offensive line since 2013. Now, the 6’4, 309-pound mauler from Philadelphia is ready for the NFL.

Before Morgan emerged as the anchor of Kutztown’s unit, he was a 235-pound senior at Parkway Northwest High School. He needed “enrichment hours” to graduate, so he played football to help rack up those hours.

According to Morgan, “enrichment hours” was the school’s way to promote youth and keep students off the streets. Since Parkway Northwest was a small high school, Morgan said it sent its athletes to play sports at Germantown.

Morgan tried out for Germantown’s team and made it.

“I ended up taking that shot, and it ended up working out for me,” Morgan said. “I fell in love with it almost immediately.”

Since football was new to him, he knew he wasn’t a good player at the time. But he didn’t second-guess himself.

“Once I realized I had the opportunity, at that point it was just a matter of playing to the highest ability that I could. And just continue to make myself known and earn more playing time there.”

Morgan played offensive tackle and defensive end, but only for half a season. Then, an unexpected opportunity came knocking on his door. Kutztown University traveled to Germantown to recruit some of Morgan’s teammates. But Raymond Monica, Kutztown’s head coach at the time, and his staff saw potential in Morgan.

“We thought he had a big upside [when] we watched him on the field,” Monica told SB Nation. “We thought if he stuck to it and work hard, he can play on our football team.”

So, Kutztown brought Morgan to play as a walk-on.

“I was ecstatic, honestly,” Morgan said. “I understood that I was in a position where I wasn’t going to be getting the money or praise as some of the other people coming into the program. But that didn’t really bother me.”

Morgan was excited to compete for a role on the Golden Bears. From that day forward, he had one focus: “Be the hardest-working person, and make the biggest impression that I could every time.”

In 2012, Morgan arrived at Kutztown, ready to compete.

“When a lot of guys come to college, they want to play right away. And I get it because it’s exciting, and you want to prove that you have that level of talent. But it’s one of those things where you just need to sit back, step outside of yourself, and learn.”

He redshirted his first year, but there was a huge hurdle he had to clear before he could step foot on the field. At 235 pounds, Morgan wasn’t big enough to play left tackle, so he had to gain a lot of weight.

Kutztown lacked the resources major programs have, so he enrolled in nutrition classes. He also talked to his teammates to find trainers who could help him eclipse 300 pounds while gaining “good weight.”

The next year, Morgan was up to 309 pounds and ready to solidify himself as the Golden Bears’ starting left tackle. But this time, he had to prove himself to a new head coach. The program hired Drew Folmar after Monica left to become Arkansas Tech University’s next head coach.

Morgan impressed Folmar immediately.

Like any first-year starter at the collegiate level, Morgan experienced some growing pains, but he improved as the season progressed.

“You could see flashes and glimpses of talent there, but he just needed to grow, develop, and get experience,” Folmar told SB Nation.

Morgan’s main weakness was just a lack of playing time. But his biggest attribute, according to Folmar, was his desire to be a good player.

“He was very coachable, he worked hard, [and] he showed up every day,” Folmar said.

Morgan described his first year on the field as a “learning curve,” but he wasn’t pleased with his performance. Following that season, he watched game tapes and vowed to work with his coaches.

Morgan refined his game, but once again, he had to prove himself to another head coach. Folmar resigned as Kutztown’s head coach after one season and the Golden Bears hired Jim Clements to replace him.

Clements knew Morgan had the potential to be a great left tackle years before he took the job at Kutztown. For the previous eight years, Clements was the head coach at Delaware Valley College and had tried to recruit Morgan while he was in high school.

When Clements arrived to Kutztown in 2014, he noticed Morgan’s work ethic right off the bat.

“He really was a sponge in regards to the game, you know,” Clements told SB Nation. “The Xs and Os, the techniques, and the different tricks of the trade that would make him a better player game after game. And he really worked hard.

“You can pull probably 10 blocks per game that were great plays by Jordan. Usually, [they] help spring a big play. We were able to really set some records running the ball, and Jordan was a huge part of that, without a doubt.”

Last season, the Golden Bears racked up a school-record 459 rushing yards against East Stroudsburg, thanks in part to Morgan’s ferocious blocking and leadership along the offensive line. As a team, the Golden Bears ran for 2,492 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2016.

Morgan says everyone on the football field has to communicate in order to click on all cylinders. But offensive linemen must know each other “like the back of your hand.”

“It’s a sense of camaraderie that comes with that position. You have to be able to communicate, you gotta know your guys, and you gotta be able to work together,” Morgan explained.

Because of his strong play along the offensive line and his leadership skills, Morgan was a team captain in 2015 and 2016. He also won several awards last year, including the 2016 Gene Upshaw Award, which honors the best lineman in NCAA Division II football. He also became the first offensive lineman to ever win the 2016 PSAC East Offensive Athlete of the Year award.

Morgan’s dedication helped him land an invite to the NFL Combine and the 2017 Senior Bowl in Mobile.

At the Senior Bowl, Morgan played on the North squad, coached by John Fox and the Chicago Bears staff. It was surreal for Morgan. During his first practice, he said he was timid because it was a new atmosphere to him.

He also had to make the transition to left guard and struggled with pass sets early on. As time went by, he loosened up and played better. From there, he got used to how things worked as an NFL prospect.

“At first, you saw him early in the Senior Bowl practice where he might have been taking too deep of a pass set at left guard,” Clements said. “At left tackle, you have to take a little deeper pass set. At guard, you don’t. And I think it took him a couple reps to figure that out. By the end of that week in practice, he was doing extremely well.”

After the Senior Bowl, Morgan traveled to Indianapolis and participated in drills at the NFL Combine. He ran a 5.36 in the 40-yard dash, put up bench 21 reps on the bench press, and had a 27-inch vertical jump, all respectable numbers.

Teams that contacted Morgan said he has to convert to guard or even be used as a swing guy at center. He’s fine with potentially moving to a new position.

Clements believes Morgan can play left tackle in the NFL because he has the wingspan and good feet. However, he believes it will be easier for Morgan to adapt to the inside than outside.

“In the inside, he’ll still see a great speed rush way more than he’s ever seen at Kutztown,” Clements said. “But he’s solid enough to be able to anchor a bull rush.”

“I don’t really have a preference as [to what position] a team wants me play,” Morgan said. He wants all 32 teams to know that they won’t find another offensive lineman who is more passionate about learning and football.

If Morgan gets drafted, he will be only the fourth player in Kutztown’s history selected, and the first since linebacker John Mobley in 1996. But he’s been silencing doubters since high school. He plans to do the same in the NFL.