Shane Morris
Name: Shane Morris
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 208 lbs.
High school: Warren (MI) De La Salle
Position: Quarterback
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #7
Last year: I ranked Morris #30 and said he would be the backup quarterback (LINK). He redshirted.
Well, aside from anointing Jake Rudock as last year’s starter, I royally screwed up the quarterback situation. I ranked Morris #30 and said he would be the backup QB. Instead, he redshirted while Wilton Speight was the #2 guy. I also thought Zach Gentry would play some, but he redshirted, too. Rudock was good enough to have clearly earned the #1 job, so that seemed like a no-brainer. Jim Harbaugh seemed to want to preserve Morris’s eligibility for an extra year, even though he started off the year as the #2 guy. By midway through the season, Harbaugh told the media that Speight had surpassed Morris. Whether that was coachspeak to support Speight or whether it was the truth, maybe we’ll never know.
What we do know is that Speight has thrown a touchdown in his career, something Morris has yet to accomplish.
This spring, with Rudock gone, the starting job was a battle between Speight and John O’Korn. I like O’Korn’s upside better because he can run and has a better arm, but the story is that Speight makes fewer mistakes. At this point I don’t have much faith in Morris’s future. He has been passed by younger guys and keeps getting pushed farther down the depth chart. What I do potentially find intriguing is Morris’s athleticism. He was playing a fair amount of receiver this spring, and he even threw a touchdown pass to Drake Johnson in the spring game on a double-pass from the WR spot. Of course, Michigan had some depth issues at wideout in the spring, but Morris’s good size and decent athleticism maybe puts him in a spot where he can be used in certain situations.
I have doubts about whether Morris will take even one snap at QB this season, but I wouldn’t put it past Jim Harbaugh to throw him out there. There are some creative ways to use a package of, say, Wilton Speight at QB, Drake Johnson at RB, Jabrill Peppers at slot receiver, and Morris at WR. Or Speight at QB, Peppers at RB, and Morris at slot receiver. Harbaugh and his crew did a nice job of putting together creative formations and personnel packages last year, and maybe Morris can be a part of that this season. This might also be his chance to audition for a graduate transfer in 2017, because I don’t foresee him surpassing O’Korn or Speight.
Prediction: Backup quarterback/receiver
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I’d like to hear more about how you might use Morris in the slot. You’re not envisioning some kind of pass options off of Buck Lateral Series stuff ….. are you? That might be more fun than some of us old guys can stand.
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No, I’m not necessarily talking about Buck Lateral, but you could use Morris in the short passing game. You could also use him on bubble screens, jet sweep handoffs, fake jet sweep handoffs, etc. Just using him as a decoy could create an opportunity for a big play. I almost wonder if Harbaugh called that double-pass in the spring game to get opponents thinking about it for the fall.
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There’s a lesson in here somewhere … how can someone so highly-touted end up lost in the depth chart? Is it due to a lack of *something* previously not understood?
Also, I recall Lou Holtz saying that he would never recruit a left-handed QB … is there anything to that? I searched for “best left-handed quarterbacks in the NFL” and came up with a list that cited Steve Young and Boomer Esiason as #1 and #2, with Kenny Stabler at #3. Then the list fades into relative obscurity, with Tim Tebow finishing up at #10.
Is there any true schematic reason why a lefty would be hindered? Or is it just that really gifted left-handed athletes gravitate to pitching in baseball and never strive to be quarterbacks?
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Morris might be the all time camp warrior. He tried and failed repeatedly before finally making the Elite 11 thing. He had some moments with some late drives and come from behind wins (if memory serves) as an underclassman at DLS on a team that both could and wanted to run the football, but he was not always real consistent …. or accurate. He missed his SR season with an injury. This allowed him to avoid some scrutiny and possible reevaluation of his 5 star status.
Everybody saw the cannon and the athleticism, the lack of consistent accuracy and touch was overlooked. I have often thought that Morris would likely have been much better off with RR than with Hoke.
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I’d put the Snake first. He is reputed to have out partied the legendary Joe Namath while at Alabama, to the point where Bear Bryant kicked him off the team for a minute before returning to his senses. He was 11-0 at Alabama in 1966, the year MSU and Notre Dame played to their famed 10-10 tie. Sparty likes to whine about getting screwed out of the National Championship by Notre Dame, Alabama had a better record than both of them.
Here’s Stabler’s 1967 “Run in the Mud” against Auburn.
http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/the-moment-that-defined-ken-stablers-historic-alabama-career/
I loved the Snake.
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Morris wasn’t THAT highly touted. Michigan fans treated him like the next coming because he was a local kid, because Michigan skipped on recruiting a QB the previous class, and because he was a symbol of hope at a time when the offense stunk.
Morris was a 4 star QB ranked in the 50-100 range. It’s very common for players like this not to pan out. Especially when they miss their senior season due to injury.
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Morris came in as a 4 star 96+ kid at 247. He was the #3 drop back passer in his class, and the #1 recruit out of the state of Michigan.
As an aside, Green was a 98, Kugler a 96, Bosch a 95, Dawson was another 95, and Chris Fox was a 94, all on 247. Whoda thunk this group would struggle so.
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Being the #1 kid in-state doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Morris was the #3 pro-style passer in a class with only 2 5-stars (Hackenburg and Browne) and, other than Goff, a bunch of disappointments. The entire QB class was overrated.
Those examples illustrate my point — 4 stars (and highly ranked players in general) disappoint all the time. Morris’ case is unexceptional except in the fact that he got overhyped locally.
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I think there’s a lot to learn from Morris’s situation, particularly from Michigan fans’ perception. First of all, a rocket arm doesn’t mean everything. Furthermore, there were some decision-making issues in high school. Also, the competition level at Warren (MI) De La Salle isn’t that great. There have been a few guys in recent years to get offers out of De La Salle, but so far nobody has hit it big.
I think the biggest reason not to recruit a left-handed QB is simply that it changes your rhythm from a right-handed QB. There are different sight lines, you want him to roll a different way more often, the ball spins differently and comes from a different angle, etc. I don’t agree with Holtz, because I think you can be a left-handed QB, but it’s best if the whole team practices with him a lot. Going back-and-forth a lot (like Michigan did with Morris/Gardner) is going to mess with a team’s rhythm. There’s no way around that if he’s your clear #2, so I see where Holtz is coming from…but there are still talents like Michael Vick, Steve Young, Jared Lorenzen, Kellen Moore, etc. who you’ll miss.
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DSL plays, Rice, CC and Orchard Lake St. Mary. That’s pretty hard to argue with. Their non conference games this year include Lowell. They’ve travelled in the past to play the tough Ohio Catholic schools. They’ve made some runs and played the PSL tough in the tournament. They beat the snot out of RSJ even though he won the game. I’m betting they even start scheduling Dakota now that Giannoni is there.
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Giannone.
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RJS ….. speaking of struggling.
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That competition is fine in-state, but those schools still aren’t pumping out D-I skill players on the regular. OLSM is a solid program who produces some college talent, but Novi Catholic Central puts out big linemen, fullbacks (ahem), etc. Lowell is a good program, but you’re not playing elite talent. And even when you’re playing some of the best teams in the state, it’s still Michigan, which is mediocre when it comes to producing talent on the college/NFL level.
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morris busted and ended up buried on the depth chart for a variety of reasons. most would agree he was overrated as a prospect and then way too typed for a bunch of reasons by a rapid fan base desperate for a winning program and another bigtime QB.
as others mentioned, he failed to develop any real accuracy or touch on his ball and thats certainly a big part of it. hes obviously an athletic kid with a strong arm but the inconsistent accuracy and touch are killers. thats the physical part.
hes also busted and buried on the depth chart for mental, non-physical flaws. im not close enough to the program to know how morris has progressed each day over the years and i dont know him personally so i can only comment so far – but hes obviously also lacking some necessities bw the ears. not saying hes unintelligent – far from it. im just saying that so much of the QB position is played bw the ears and its impossible for a QB to successfully run a pro style O (or almost any O for that matter, unless the coaches handle most calls at the line) if he doesnt have the mental capacity for it. QB is the toughest position in sports (due to combo of physical / mental skills necessary to be the best), in my opinion, and it certainly carries the greatest mental burden of any football position (though C or S are tough as well).
the best QBs see the entire field, understand any and all concepts thrown at them (both O and D), they can process info quickly and react accordingly, etc. QBs must make decisions in fractions of a second, with constantly changing variables, and then allow their physical skills to take over. but if theyre a hair late, if they didnt nail their pre-snap read correctly, if they failed to shift to the proper protection, if theyre stuck looking at the S a tick too long, etc theyre going to struggle – and theyll struggle twice as hard if they also lack the ability to consistently fit balls into tight windows or find the right touch to drop a ball bw defenders.
QBs must be able to process quickly and react instantly, they must be able to take mental snapshots of the field and immediately know where theyre going and how their teammates will react (and even some really smart dudes, IQ wise, struggle in these areas) – if they cant hack it, even great athletes will prob struggle.
modern spread Os with simpler reads and easier throws help many QBs just as multiple signals from the sidelines and receiving calls and adjustments at the LOS can help QBs navigate these areas but even modern QBs in simplified systems with more involved coaches must have the mental chops to succeed at this level.
unfortunately all evidence to date indicates morris not only lacks the consistent accuracy and touch required but also the processing and decision making needed to become a solid college QB. hes not the first and wont be the last though – its incredibly difficult to process the game and make way more winning plays / decisions than losing ones while 100,000 fans scream, 300 lb dudes try to crush you, 115 brothers and dozens of coaches rely on you, etc
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Dude – Morris is not a WR. This silliness is the ultimate example of reading too much into the Spring. Michigan is adding a slew of freshman WRs this fall and all of them will be twice the athlete that Morris is and many times more experienced at WR.
As for Morris the QB aka Shane Morris – I can’t think of a more obvious anticipated grad transfer at Michigan. Hopefully he spends the year learning from Harbaugh and Fisch, graduates in December, and gets an opportunity somewhere else in 2017.
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I know. Brady Pallante isn’t a fullback, either. Tom Strobel isn’t a nose tackle or a tight end. Maurice Hurst, Jr. isn’t a fullback. Sometimes guys are used out of position in certain situations.
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You didn’t list FB as a position for Hurst or Pallante – and rightfully so.
It’s fun to think about QBs being used creatively in trick plays, but that doesn’t happen too often (as we saw last year with the Gentry rumors).
Michigan has a bunch of electric athletes (e.g, Peppers, Chesson, freshman) and some of them are even ex-QBs. Morris isn’t a play-maker that Michigan needs to go out of it’s way to call plays for.
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I haven’t done a post on Hurst. Last year I thought Jabrill Peppers would play multiple positions, so I listed him that way. And Harbaugh’s propensity for using guys like Pallante, Strobel, etc. on both sides of the ball wasn’t really known during last year’s countdown.
Comparing a redshirt junior with playing experience and a true freshman with no experience is kind of odd. You’re right that Michigan didn’t burn Gentry’s redshirt on trick plays last year…but that doesn’t prove much.
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Gentry doesn’t prove anything but he’s an example. There are good athletes and then there are good athletes FOR THEIR POSITION.
Ben Braden may be very fast and agile for an OT, but we’re not going to stick him at CB anytime soon.
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Offensive tackles can’t play cornerback, so therefore quarterbacks can’t play receiver. You win.
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Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor.
You get my point – if you think Morris is athletic enough to be a viable WR you are kidding yourself. Devin Gardner was barely good enough to play WR and he’s on another level athletically than Morris is.
I assume you don’t, and that you’re listing Morris at receiver under the assumption that he might get used in some sort of special package of plays. Same situation as Gentry last year, if that’s the case. Arguing about year/eligibility is beside the point entirely.
While such a scenario does make some sense for Morris if the teams goals are to get him on the field in some way/shape/form, but I don’t think that’s a major goal for Michigan considering they red-shirted him last year.
Like I said before – Michigan has better options at QB, better options at WR, and better options if they want to be tricky and put the ball in the hands of their playmakers.
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Sarcasm was your tool when pointing out that Ben Braden won’t be playing cornerback anytime soon. If it’s the lowest form of humor, then I just joined you at the lowest level.
I didn’t suggest throughout this whole post that Morris was going to be a viable wide receiver candidate. I clearly explained that I thought he could be used on trick plays or certain packages.
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That wasn’t sarcastic. My Braden comment was an analogy.
If I had said “I guess we should just go ahead and move Braden to corner then!” – that would have been sarcasm.
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It was a sarcastic analogy. Nobody thinks Ben Braden can be a CB, and you know that.
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I agree nobody thinks that — just as no one should think Morris can play WR.
That was the point of the analogy. There was nothing sarcastic about it.
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Well, obviously some people DO think he can play WR in certain packages. I’m not the only one, which should be clear, since Jim Harbaugh put him at WR a little bit in several spring practices.
I’m not saying Morris is going to be Jehu Chesson’s primary backup. I’m saying he might go line up at WR on a play here or there to keep the defense guessing. Kevin Hogan did it at Stanford last year, Mark Sanchez did it for the Jets, etc. Lots of QBs have lined up at WR on occasion. It’s not even a question of whether Morris CAN do it. It’s simply a matter of whether he will or not. You don’t think so. I think he might.
However, literally nobody in the universe thinks Ben Braden can be a cornerback. We’ve seen QBs line up at WR, but we’ve literally never seen a 6’6″, 320 lb. guy line up at CB. So it was a sarcastic comment, or it was a really crappy analogy.
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We’re beating a dead horse here.
Braden to CB is an exaggerated example of Morris to WR. Sarcasm is insincere. I wasn’t insincere. If I had actually been arguing that Braden was moving to CB, THAT would have been.
The point of my analogy was to illustrate the (IMO) ridiculous nature of your opinion about Morris. You’re arguing Morris is a part-time WR because he’s a pretty good athlete. I’m saying he may be FOR HIS POSITION, but isn’t for the position you project him to. Braden-to-CB illustrates an example where this logic doesn’t work. I’m applying/extending your logic in an exaggerated case to illustrate it’s incorrectness.
Obviously I wasn’t successful in convincing you, but at least I can take solace in hoping that you have a better understanding of sarcasm.
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Literally nobody thinks of Mark Sanchez or Kevin Hogan as WRs. Vincent Smith wasn’t a QB or WR. Greise and Navarre caught passes, but weren’t WRs. Jabril Peppers might get a direct snap, but that won’t make him a QB. You get the point. Lining up at a different position on a trick play (or even a few) – especially in a practice situation – doesn’t make you a player at that position.
Even if you are right (about Morris getting in on some trick plays where he catches a pass) you will still be wrong (about Morris being a WR). To be a WR he would actually have to start practicing with all the other WRs (like Devin Gardner did for a few weeks.) That ain’t happening, even for Harbaugh – who loves working guys at ‘other’ positions more than any other coach in the country. It would be a waste of time for Morris, the WR coaches, and the actual WRs on the roster.
Morris did what he did in the spring – it’s irrelevant. Even more than Teric Jones or Dennis Norfleet at CB was irrelevant. Michigan is about to add 4 or 5 new WRs in a few weeks, Morris won’t be one of them.
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Right. So I spent 1.5 paragraphs talking about how Morris might be used in creative packages, and I listed Morris as a QB in the header…but since I put “Backup quarterback/receiver” at the end of the post, you think I’m pegging him as an athletic wide receiver. You should probably pay more attention to my 500-word essays than the concise wrap-ups at the end. I’m not saying he will be a WIDE RECEIVER. I’m saying he might get in the game at wide receiver. I’ve already given you the example that Jabrill Peppers was a defensive player last year, but I also listed him as a part-time slot receiver. I didn’t think he was a slot receiver. I thought he was a guy who would play multiple roles. The same goes for Morris.
Like you said, we’re beating a dead horse. I’m not going to pursue this argument any further. I don’t even know why it has come this far.
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I’m saying the idea he will get into the game as a WR is crazy. Even IF he lines up at a WR on a trick play it will be to throw a pass (or present the threat of throwing a pass) not because of his route running or pass catching or blocking or elusiveness (i.e., WR skills).
Peppers was used at WR and RB because he has skills of a WR and RB. Morris does not.
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Makes sense with Peppers – because duh. Doesn’t make sense with Morris – because duh.
Your prediction, listed under “Prediction:” just after you spent an entire paragraph discussing it, is wacky. Probably wouldn’t have said much about it except you made a similarly wacky prediction with Gentry last year. Trick plays with backup QBs are a bit of a fantasy. Not saying it will never happen but the freshman Blake Bell/Tim Tebow stuff is very very rare. Yes QBs do move to WR sometime, but they tend to be run-first QBs with elite athleticism, that other schools recruited for other positions.
I’ve been guilty of overrating this stuff myself – because it’s fun to imagine – but in this case we’re talking about a guy who isn’t even an believable asset because his athleticism is nothing special. It doesn’t even make sense.
Your analysis is generally very grounded in reality and pragmatic. Philosophical differences aside, I think we have similar sensibilities and can look past hype and blind hope. Everyone has their favorites, who they maybe overrate a bit too, but we’ve both been fans for long enough to look past some BS narratives about unproven players.
Morris as a WR though, is one of the weirder things i’ve seen you speculate about.
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The ranking is fair for a veteran QB locked into 3rd string. If he’s the 4th string QB though – this is too high.
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I felt last year that Morris would never be the starter for Michigan, and that redshirting him just to be the third or fourth stringer this year was an exercise in futility and a waste of a scholarship for us and a year of eligibility for him. In hindsight, the coaches should have just let him transfer. Peters or even Malzone (if we are determined to redshirt Peters) are adequate as the #3 guy this year. Morris may get a few deep 4th quarter snaps in a non-conference blow-out this season, but I doubt we see any more of him than that.
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Not a waste for him. Morris can graduate from UM, get coached by Harbaugh and Fisch, and then transfer without sitting a year to a situation that suits him best.
The coaches did not prevent Morris from transferring (since they can’t).
From the program’s perspective, Morris may or may not be a “waste of scholarship” but this is college football, not an NFL team that cuts whoever they want whenever they want. A year ago the 2016 QB situation looked far more open than it looks today, with Okorn, Speight having good development years and Peters joining the team. Heading into last year, Morris was the top backup and the leading candidate to start in 2016. “Let him transfer” (i.e., pushing him away from UM football) would have been a reckless and foolish move.
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If he wants a degree from Michigan, that’s great..no problem there, but he didn’t need to redshirt for that. And if he actually wants to play somewhere else, he’ll burn a year of eligibility riding the bench this year and only have one left if he transfers, rather than two.
And I never said that the coaches prevented Morris from transferring. But they led him to believe that he still had a chance to start here, when they probably knew that wasn’t realistic (if Harbaugh is as good a judge of QB talent as everyone says). It may not be the same as “cutting” him, but they burned a year of his eligibility to cover their asses,with no benefit to Morris.
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You wrote: “the coaches should have just let him transfer.” That implies they didn’t.
The only way Morris would have gotten 2 years elsewhere is if he transferred before the start of last season.
I think you’re forgetting that before the season started Michigan didn’t know everything that we know now. While Rudock appeared locked in at starter, Morris seemed to be ahead of Speight. Had Rudock gone down against Utah I think Morris would have been in. Regardless, he handled the funky situation with class.
I’d like to believe that Morris knew the likely outcome all along. As soon as the Rudock transfer was announced he knew he was in a battle, if not before. While it wasn’t official till fall, it was widely known/assumed that Morris would be the likely backup. I don’t know when the red-shirt plan was solidified but it seems obvious that it’s a strategy designed to give Morris the option to take the grad year transfer. Harbaugh being Harbaugh I think he told him like it is. Graduate from Michigan, learn from us, go out and prove yourself in 2017 (here or elsewhere).
Michigan benefits this year from having Morris on the roster (as insurance if nothing else). For Morris, he could transfer elsewhere now and save Michigan the scholarship, but he’d be giving up an M degree and have zero change of playing in 2016. The current situation seems like a win-win.
Morris is a bust at Michigan. Last year and this year don’t change that.
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Did you want him to burn the redshirt just for the sake of burning it?
M doesn’t use up anymore scholarships by having him red-shirt last year unless they choose to bring him back for year 5 (and he agrees).
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