When fans watch Morgan State football star Arturo Mattocks, they see a highly productive player from the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area.
The 6-foot-1, 205-pound graduate linebacker out of Montgomery Village, Md., had 68 tackles in 12 games in 2024 but played only two games in 2025 before suffering a season-ending ankle injury. He entered the 2026 season as a first-team preseason All-MEAC selection.
Bears linebackers coach Brawley Evans, a former inside and outside linebackers coach at the University of Maryland, has constantly seen the potential in Mattocks.
The two have developed a relationship in the film room and on the field. Their ability to diagnose plays and move players to the correct positions, adjust coverages and communicate served as a jumping-off point.
“He’s my counterpart,” Evans said. “… I’m one of the guys. I’m just the guy that has the most experience. I’m just the guy that’s been exposed to the most. But when it comes to me and him, we have conversations. There’s no, ‘Hey, do this.’ We talk about things. He makes a job easy. He’s me. … How I think and how I would do if I could do it, he’s doing it.”
What fans don’t see is that Mattocks’ life is one of faith, discipline and structure. His parents instilled those tenets in him from a young age with five other siblings in his household. Mattocks is fifth in the birth order and has one younger sister.
Mattocks’ parents put him in situations outside of his comfort zone and challenged him in life. They went all-in on sending him to St. John’s College High School in D.C., encouraging him to become a higher-level thinker on and off of the field. He was constantly challenged and pushed by them in a way that he feels that made him a better teammate at Morgan.
“It was a switch,” Mattocks said of his time at St. John’s. “I think I needed it because being around a different group of people showed me a different side of life that I might have not seen before.”
Mattocks was a first-team Washington Catholic Athletic Conference selection and an honorable mention Washington Post All-Metro pick as a senior in 2021. A number of teammates from his class went on to power conference schools, including Zahbari Sandy (South Carolina), Joshua Thompson (Stanford), Montay Weedon (Cincinnati) and Sean Williams (Maryland).
“His high school, his team alone had anywhere between 10 and 15 Power Five players. On one team,” Evans said. “But no matter what, he always managed to be a starter. So he knows what the grind is, what hard work does. He understands what hard work means. He understands that, ‘I won’t be outworked.'”
Mattocks’ Islamic faith is evident in his routine as an athlete, especially through the days of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar as a time for prayer, reflection and fasting, which includes no food or water from sunrise to sunset to bring oneself closer to Allah. Fast is broken at sunset, also known as Iftar.
“I just say it’s a way of life,” Mattocks said of his faith. “Sometimes your desires might try to get you, but you just ask yourself, ‘Do all my desires matter more than Allah?’ Just getting that same mindset helps on the field when it’s time to put in the work. What’s more important, your desires or that work?”
With the discipline that he has shown throughout his time at Morgan, Mattocks hopes to have his best season yet and leave the Bears on a high note. Morgan kicks off its 2026 season at North Carolina A&T on Aug. 29 at 6 p.m.
“I just want to play football,” Mattocks said. “The story is already written. I put the work in and whatever comes from that is going to be what goes on. Just being the best athlete I could be is my top goal and whatever I could get from there.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Morgan State Athletics