Shane Morris
NOTE: This isn’t really related to anything, but we’ve had the #1, #3, and #7 most comments ever on the site on three different posts in the last week-and-a-half. It’s great. Thanks for reading and participating!
TRANSFERS
Independence C.C. RB Kingston Davis: Davis had 7 carries for 22 yards in a 27-23 win over Garden City Community College.
Rutgers LB Ross Douglas: Douglas made 7 tackles in a 16-13 loss to Eastern Michigan. Yes, Rutgers lost to EMU.
Central Michigan QB Shane Morris: Morris completed 28/37 passes (75.7%) for 467 yards and 5 touchdowns; he also ran 8 times for 32 yards in a 45-27 win over Kansas. This was easily the best game of his career and, frankly, quite a surprise.
FORMER COMMITMENTS
Boston College RB A.J. Dillon: Dillon ran 15 times for 43 yards in a 34-10 loss to Wake Forest.
Illinois LB Dele’ Harding: Harding made 2 tackles in Illinois’ 20-7 win over Western Kentucky.
Alabama RB Damien Harris: Harris ran 6 times for 32 yards and caught 1 pass for -7 yards in a 41-10 win over Fresno State.
Eastern Illinois LB Dytarious Johnson: Johnson has made 10 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss in two games this season.
Maryland CB Antwaine Richardson: Richardson made 2 tackles in a 63-17 win over Towson. This comes a week after he was carted off the field with fears of a spinal injury, so it’s good to know he’s healthy.
North Carolina State DT Darian Roseboro: Roseboro made 1 tackle in a 37-20 win over Marshall.
Penn State S Garrett Taylor: Taylor made 2 tackles in a 33-14 win over Pitt.
Pittsburgh DE Rashad Weaver: Weaver made 1 tackle in a 33-14 loss to Penn State.
FORMER COACHES
Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin: Durkin’s Terrapins won against cupcake Towson, 63-17. They’re 2-0 this season.
Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez: The Wildcats lost to Houston at home, 19-16. They’re 1-1 this year.
You need to login in order to vote
Good for Shane.
You need to login in order to vote
Agree … it’s good he has an opportunity to play and do well.
You need to login in order to vote
Glad he’s doing well. Though it does make you wonder where that kind of ability was hiding while he was here.
You need to login in order to vote
Interesting question to ponder. His tenure at Michigan was marked by quite a bit of coaching churn: two HCs, three OCs. But it could be he’s just more relaxed at CMU, and that Kansas was just a really bad opponent.
You need to login in order to vote
I’m sure it’s a bit of both, but again, stats can be misleading
Just like HS, here at UM, and last week against Rhode Island, Morris struggles to get the ball to the right side of the field (unless the target is wide open), and still has poor touch
Best of luck to the young man, but I’ve seen fans take his boxscore and assume he’d be better than what we have in speight
Watch the game, and it’s easier to dismiss the Kansas numbers
You need to login in order to vote
We played plenty of teams that bad while he was here. And we had better pass catchers than anything he’s got at CMU. But we never got anything like that kind of production from any of our QBs, even ones that Morris was buried on the depth chart behind.
You need to login in order to vote
We’ve shifted up any Michigan QB.
Borges was an odd duck OC … he ran hot and cold on his game plans. Nussmeier was, I think, just bad. Evidence to support that is coming clear from his tenure at Michigan and then at Florida.
Going to the CMU-Kansas box score, I see CMU attempted 35 rushes for 123 yards (3.5 average). I wonder if it was the case where Kansas (like Cincinnati) stacked the box and forced CMU (and Morris) to beat them through the air? In that case Morris (and his receivers) responded. Kansas is #118 nationally in pass defense, allowing 318 yards/game on average. They are #42 nationally in run defense, allowing only 103 yards. CMU is #57 in rush offense (after Kansas), so again … I’m wondering if Kansas just doubled-down on stopping the run and hoped for miracles stopping CMU’s passing attack.
You need to login in order to vote
Oh how I wish we had an “edit” function here. First sentence was supposed to indicate a shift of focus up from Morris at Michigan to all QBs at Michigan.
You need to login in order to vote
Plenty of teams have stacked the box against us and dared us to beat them through the air. When was the last time a Michigan QB topped 400 yards?
You need to login in order to vote
Devin Gardner … 451 yards against Ohio State in 2013?
I think the point you’re trying to make is that Shane Morris was underutilized at Michigan; that if properly coached, he and other Michigan QBs could be putting up 400+ yard games.
We’ll see if Morris keeps this pace through the year. I’m guessing he won’t. But we’ll see.
To be honest, I’d rather *not* see 400 yards passing, 100 yards rushing. I’d much rather see 200 yards rushing and 300 passing, or 250/250. Live by the pass and die by the pass. Mike Leach at Washington State has a pass-oriented attack, and while he does okay, I doubt very much we’ll see WSU in the Pac-12 tournament discussion.
You need to login in order to vote
Behind a crappy OL, for starters.
You need to login in order to vote
“we’ve had the #1, #3, and #7 most comments ever on the site on three different posts in the last week-and-a-half.”
It’s been fun! What I enjoy about commenting and discussion here is it’s relatively civil and to the point. Other sites — I’ll not mention them — turn into people yelling past one another.
There are some strong viewpoints represented here. But it’s a good discussion.
You need to login in order to vote
I was going to post something similar. 100 is the new benchmark
Congrats Thunder!
You need to login in order to vote
There is a very good reason for many players to go to a place that allows for potential immediate playing time. Why work really hard to sit on the bench? It’s always a tradeoff and glad to see some of these guys doing well.
You need to login in order to vote
Countdown to kickoff is my favorite TTB series. Ex wolverine update is competing for second favorite.
Nice to hear Morris is doing well. Haven’t seen a central game yet, but I’m hoping one of these weekends will slow down to have time for that.
You need to login in order to vote
Worth a read for some frequent commentators here:
https://thepowerrank.com/2017/09/11/reason-cant-avoid-curse-small-sample-size/
You need to login in order to vote