Page 4-The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday- November 26, 1990
MORRIS
Continued from page 1
"I wanted to get away from that
family tradition kind of thing, but I
also wanted to go to Michigan when
I was young," he said. "I liked the
colors of them, I loved their hel-
mets, and I liked coach
Schembechler - the way he stormed
up and down the sidelines. That's the
kind of coach I wanted to play for."
As a Wolverine, Morris shattered
numerous Michigan records. Starting
with his first year, when he set the
frosh rushing record with 574 yards
(which current first-year player
Ricky Powers just broke this week-
end), and carrying through to his se-
nior year, when he finished as
Michigan's all time leading rusher,
with 4,393 yards. The all-purpose
yardage mark of 6,201 is his as well.
Morris also set the Wolverine
single-season rushing record with.
1,703 yards his senior year. But de-
spite a weak field for the Heisman
Trophy, which was won by Tim
Brown, Morris did not receive strong
consideration.
"Personally, I was really disap-
pointed," he said. "But it's like
coach Schembechler said - we were
a team, we didn't have any individu-
als, and that's what he instilled in all
of us. I was hurt because they had
the other running back up at
Michigan State (Lorenzo White), and
he got all kinds of stuff, and I tried
to match his numbers. And I
thought I did a pretty good job."
The next disappointment came
with his position in the NFL draft.
The Washington Redskins didn't se-
lect him until the fourth round.
"Once again I got a call from Bo to
tell me, 'Remember that we don't
publicize our athletes. We're not a
football factory, we're a character
builder.' And you know, that kind of
mellowed me out, and I said, 'Well,
at least I got good character!"' he
laughed.
At Washington he set more
records, establishing the NFL mark
by carrying the ball 45 times in the
last game of his rookie season. "I
didn't think I carried the ball that
much, but then some reporter came
up to me and said, 'Jamie, congratu-
lations on your record,' and I was
like, 'Get out of here! Record -
what record did I break?"'
Despite that game, he didn't feel
he would ever get a fair chance. "It
seemed like I had to wait for some-
one to get hurt," he remembered.
And when the Redskins acquired
Gerald Riggs and Ernest Byner be-
fore the 1989 season, Morris decided
that it was time to leave.
As a Plan B free agent, he signed
at the beginning of this season with
the New England Patriots. But at the
end of training camp he was let go.
"First of all, Jamie was border-
line making our team in camp," said
Joe Mendes, the Patriots' director of
player operations. "We had a free
agent rookie... who we felt showed
some real promise, and then some
traits started to surface in his playing
personality that we didn't necessarily
think would be improvable.
'I liked the colors of
(Michigan), I loved
their helmets, and I
liked coach Schem-
bechler - the way he
stormed up and down
the sidelines. That's
the kind of coach I
wanted to play for.'
-Jamie Morris
"Jamie is a great work ethic guy
who has ability and brings a lot of
energy into a program," Mendes
added. "When you're trying to mold
a personality - because there are
things that have to be changed
around here - you have to start
with a foundation, you have to start
with a work ethic, and improve the
overall concentration level. And
that's where Jamie Morris fits in."
General Manager Pat Sullivan
agreed. "He just showed that he's the
type of guy that - I mean, he gives
you a lot on the field - intangible
things - desire, personality, things
like that," he said.
"Jamie's biggest skill is his run-
ning ability," offensive backs coach
Bobby Grier said. "He's tough, and
he gives you 100 percent."
So on Nov. 7, the Patriots
brought him back. "I found that out
first," said Morris' mother, Addie.
"They called me, and after I told
him, Jamie said, 'Mama, you're jok-
ing!' and I said, 'Well, I'm not,' be-
cause he still thought I was joking."
So now Jamie Morris plays spe-
cial teams for his hometown team.
He waits, hoping for a chance to do
what he does best.
"It's weird, because they bring
you back and they say, 'I think we
made a mistake at the beginning of
the year,' and I'm like, 'You can't
play with people's lives like that,"'
he said. "I'm finding out more and
more each year, it's not how well
you play, it's part of the business."
And if the NFL doesn't work out,
Morris is prepared for the future.
"We (his agent and other players) are
getting a business going now fran-
chising!" he said excitedly. "We got
little Subway shops, and we're fran-
chising and everything like that."
But he won't give up his dream
that easily. "I have my business, and
it's going well right now, and I want
to continue my business, but I also
want to continue to play because I
don't play strictly for money," he
said. "I play the game because I love
it.
"And I'm going to continue to
do it that way."
Former Wolverine Jamie Morris scores a touchdown as a member of the
Washington Redskins. Morris is now with the New England Patriots. f
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FOOTBALL
Continued from page 1
while a tie would have done little
more than secure a Gator Bowl trip.
"If I play for a tie and Minnesota
beats Iowa, then I couldn't face our
football team," Ohio State coach
John Cooper said. "We felt like we
could make the first down ob-
viously. Give Michigan credit. They
stuffed us on that play and conse-
quently put the ball in the middle of
the field and kicked the field goal."
Following Carlson's miss, Ohio
State began its final drive on its own
20-yard line, in hopes of getting into
field goal range. The first two
running plays picked up nine yards,
leaving a short third-down play.
The Buckeyes surprised the
Michigan defense, as Frey hit Bobby
Olive, who scored OSU's lone
touchdown of the day in the second
quarter, for an apparent 15-yard gain
and a first down. But, a clipping
penalty after the reception brought
the ball back to the original line of
scrimmage, where the Buckeyes
came up empty on two successive
plays to turn the ball over to
Michigan on downs.
"I'm worried about the damn
clipping when we had the ball at the
46-yard line on third down," Ohio
State offensive coordinator Jim
Colletto said. "We made big plays,
but we turn around and there's a flag
lying on the ground. It gets very
difficult to keep consistent when you
don't make plays."~
Cooper agreed: "We had some bad
penalties. The clipping on Bobby
Olive's catch really put us behind
the eight ball. There were some
other calls that may have beer
questionable throughout the game,
but it's one of those ball games."
The "other calls" that Cooper
mentioned werw the crowd noise
violations that Ohio State incurred.
After two warnings were issued
during a third-quarter Michigan drive,
the Buckeyes were charged with a
much needed time-out. Michigan
eventually scored on a 12-yard
touchdown strike from Elvis Grbac*
to Desmond Howard, knotting the
score at 13-13.
After the touchdown, the defenses
took over, and like a true Big Ten
clash, nobody scored again until the
final play of the game.
The only offense the Wolverines
could muster came from first-year
tailback Ricky Powers, whose 128
yards rushing accounted for over half@
of the Michigan offense. But Ohio
State proved to be ineffective as
well, gaining only 284 yards while
turning the ball over three times.
"Going in, we felt that we had to
shut down Ohio State's running
attack, and overall, we did," Moeller
said. "We stopped them on fourth
and one, took over and scored the
winning points."
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