Morgan State Linebacker Lawrence Richardson Making Believers Out Of Everyone

Junior linebacker Lawrence Richardson said he came to Morgan State to play football because the Bears were “the only school that believed in him.”

Now the Philadelphia native has a whole bunch of believers, including a whole new Morgan State coaching staff. It started during offseason workouts.

“He changes directions well and he’s a leader,” said new Bears head coach Damon Wilson, who spent the last 13 seasons at Bowie State and won the last three CIAA titles. “I don’t want to get too far ahead just based on helmet and T-shirt workouts, but he’s a guy with a work ethic that can be a very special player for us.”

Wilson is not the only one of that belief. FCS-focused podcast/website The Bluebloods recently named Richardson to its 26-member preseason All-MEAC team as a starting linebacker. The 6-1, 225-pound Richardson is coming off a 2021 season in which he was fifth in the conference with 6.8 tackles per game (68 total, 40 solo) and had 5.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions and a sack.

Richardson’s numbers should be even better this year, and he’ll rack them up fast. That’s the key phrase — fast — for Wilson and new defensive coordinator Antone’ Sewell’s 4-2-5 scheme.

“We’re going to play fast, and his size will allow him to play that way and be physical,” Wilson said. “He has a safety body but has the ability and physicality to play linebacker. We just have to put him in a position to let him be successful and play to his strengths.”

Richardson starts to smile when he hears things like that from the new coaches. Richardson admitted he cried the February day he heard head coach Tyrone Wheatley had left the program to return to the NFL as the running backs coach for the Denver Broncos. The former NFL back was 5-18 in three years at Morgan, including the canceled 2020 campaign. But it was Wheatley who gave Richardson a chance when it looked like the late-blooming Bishop McDevitt High School (Wyncote, Pa.) product might not get one at the Division I level.

It was April of his senior year in high school when Morgan State “came out of the blue” to offer him a scholarship.

“I really didn’t know if I was going to get a chance, I just prayed to God every night,” Richardson said. “Then this door opened up out of nowhere.”

He had just been on a visit to Villanova and had a good feeling about the Wildcats initially. Army was in the mix, too, but the process didn’t get very far with the Black Knights.

Then Richardson and his grandfather, the Rev. Lawrence Richardson Sr., were on a visit to Morgan State. Coaches took them to the film room to look at some of the things the Bears ran. Head coach Wheatley came in and told the Richardsons they liked what they had seen on film of the youngest Lawrence Richardson in the family. Wheatley announced they were offering a full scholarship.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ that really caught me off guard,” Richardson said. “All I could think was, ‘God is great!'”

The abruptness of the scholarship offer is unusual in these circumstances. Richardson never got a chance to build much of a personal connection with Wheatley or his staff prior to his arrival in Northeast Baltimore. He was excited to be a part of the program and build something, but now he may be even more excited on Wilson’s watch.

“He has his eyes on a prize and he just goes straight for it,” Richardson said of the new coach, who went 89-45 at Bowie State and 42-8 the last four years. “Before we split up in our individual groups, we meet in one big group and he tells us the news, what we need to know, and then we just get to it. Other coaches prolong that kind of thing, but he’s all about business and I appreciate that.”

Wilson is all about the work, too. The Bears have already done enough of it that Wilson has a feel for Richardson’s family-forged work ethic. “Done enough of it” certainly isn’t the right phrase for Wilson, though.

“His favorite thing is to say, ‘If you think you’ve done enough running, you haven’t done enough running,'” Richardson laughed.

Running is a Richardson strong suit. He arrived at Morgan State two years ago as a 210-pound linebacker, so speed and quick reaction have always been at the heart of his game. He has been clocked at 4.7 in the 40-yard dash and is improving his technique to time faster. An outstanding student of the game in addition to being an outstanding student, Richardson knows what his frame and his skills mean moving forward.

“Big linebackers are kind of old school,” he said. “Now everyone [in the NFL] wants that speed, guys that can move. That’s what I bring to the table.”

Richardson played mostly in the middle in the 3-4 alignment Morgan State used last season when the Bears yielded a MEAC-high 434.7 yards per game and allowed 28.3 points per contest. Wilson and Sewell are trading out a couple of linebackers for another lineman and another defensive back in the new base scheme.

It only makes Richardson and his versatile skill set more valuable and vital. He’ll be on the weak side, generally away from a tight end so he can showcase his film-honed reaction time and quickness to the ball.

Richardson’s ascent in the game has likewise been speedy. He didn’t begin playing football until he reached high school.

“I was lazy, and I liked my summers too much,” Richardson said. “But then I got bored. Why not play? My brother played linebacker and I looked up to him, so I started playing, too.”

Daniel Richardson had an offer from Bethune-Cookman before a triceps injury ruined his prospects. About 10 years later, Lawrence was in the Philadelphia football pipeline and playing on the defensive line. He also played some running back at McDevitt, which gave him insight into the offensive side of the ball and identifying holes to run through.

When he settled in at linebacker, Richardson quickly excelled at closing holes and making life rough on running backs and quarterbacks. In his senior year, Richardson made 89 tackles and earned Philadelphia All-Catholic League honors. But the offers from bigger schools never came, even though his instincts for the game were readily apparent.

“It’s natural for me,” Richardson said of his instincts for the game. “You feel like something’s there and you just go for it. That’s just something that’s in me.”

While Richardson now desperately wants an opportunity to show what he can do in professional football, he has even grander aspirations. He would love to be an orthopedic surgeon, and that’s the kind of dream, drive and intelligence Wilson is hoping will shake the Bears out of gridiron hibernation.

“We want to get the football program up to the standards academics has set here,” Wilson said. “And I see how much people care and the way our student-athletes are retaining information and are prepared in meetings. It speaks volumes and allows me to sleep well at night knowing how they’re working to become better.”

Richardson is optimistic about what the Bears have in store for 2022.

“I’ll be surprised if [the team] isn’t a lot better this year,” Richardson said of Morgan State’s prospects after last year’s 2-9 finish. “For me, I play linebacker and lead the defense and you have to be able to understand the offense and what they’re trying to do. You have to watch that film, study and figure out what they’re going to throw at you. Being a biology major, studying is my forte.”

Hey, med school recruiters, maybe you should start paying attention, too.

Photo Credit: Branden Waters

Issue 276: August/September 2022

Originally published Aug. 17, 2022

Mike Ashley

See all posts by Mike Ashley. Follow Mike Ashley on Twitter at @lrgsptswrtr