Rob Morgan accepts challenges on the football field and behind the dash — with a little help from an emergency brake.  ///  In both positions, his orders come in short, deliberate tones.

“Take I-20,” the assistant football coach said to students, Tyler McRight and Austin Johnson. “Right blinker,” he told McRight. “No, that’s your left one.”
“Mirrors…come on up … come on up. Alright. Let’s go.”
Today’s route for Warren Central High School’s driver’s education pupils is the scenic routes north of Interstate 20 in Bovina — over and through the woods along roads named Tiffintown and Culkin.

“Keep it steady, there. Press the gas with your foot. Now, it says 70. Go ahead and turn on the Bovina exit.”
It’s Morgan’s ninth year in the car with novice drivers and experienced wheelers alike. In cases of either, he helps youth drivers navigate some of the most challenging terrain in Mississippi.
The onramps and exits off the interstate were up first.
“Especially the one you get on Clay Street, on I-20,” Morgan said. “That one’s tricky, especially for young drivers. The good thing about is that I’m in here. Problem is, when they get by themselves they can’t always hold it steady.
“They still surprise me, but we do it enough to where we’re kind of used to it.”
McRight and Johnson, both sophomores, handle the twists and curves of eastern Warren County like pros. They’re in the class to lower their auto insurance rates. Morgan makes sure they see equal parts crowded cityscapes and wide-open pastures during the daytime course.

“We try to hit them all,” Morgan said. “We’ll hit Clay Street, then go all the way to the port. That way, they’re doing urban-type driving, where it’s kind of congested. And we try to do four-lane, where you try to set the cruise. We do the back roads, dirt roads, we try to hit it all so we can get the key to teaching everything.”
“We don’t drive at night, but we try to drive in a little bit of rain, when it’s only drizzling or wet and not pouring rain, so that they’ll learn you’re supposed to slow down by about 5 mph when it’s raining. As broad a spectrum as they can get. We don’t have enough time to teach them everything about driving, but we try to make them a better driver.”
“Make them aware of checking the blind spots, surroundings, what the signs mean, what the shapes mean, what the colors mean. They’re able to function as a driver.”
“Problem comes when we get kids that have never driven before. You say, ‘Put your foot on the brake and they look down and say, ‘Which one is that?’  A lot of our kids already have their permit, so they’ve been driving with their parents.
But, the one thing about driver’s ed is that you reduce the insurance rate for teenagers, especially the boys.”
“I try to tell them if they can maintain a clean driving record until you’re 25, you’re insurance rate drops significantly.
If you start getting tickets, fender-benders, things like that, that’s when it starts to jump on you.”
Beyond the expected stops and starts, Morgan fits the small talk into whatever space he can.
“Got a question for ya, Tyler,” Morgan asked him. “Those apartments over there…what apartments are those?”
“Pecan Ridge apartments, sir,” McRight said. “I hear they’re pretty nice. My friend Nate’s sister and her husband lived there for a while. Then, they built a house off Fisher Ferry.”