Standing in the parking lot
outside the tunnel of Michigan
Stadium on a June afternoon in
2015, Shane Morris spoke with
arms folded and a smirk creeping
up on his face, exuding the same
confidence he had when he first
arrived on campus in 2013 as an
elite high school quarterback with a
cannon for a left arm.
The long-presumed heir to the
Wolverines’ offense was serving as an
instructor at coach Jim Harbaugh’s
Aerial Assault quarterback camp, and
he was fielding questions about his
latest competition for the starting job:
Iowa graduate transfer Jake Rudock,
who had arrived on campus two
weeks earlier.
“Right now, it’s my job to lose,”
Morris said. “He came here to take
my job, and I’m just not gonna let it
happen.”
Morris delivered the words with
all the conviction of somebody who
had already been handed the keys.
Even with just two starts under his
belt, an experienced quarterback
to compete with and a new head
coach to boot, it was almost as if
Morris couldn’t believe anyone was
questioning his destiny.
Anointed as one of the nation’s
top quarterbacks when he was
just a high school sophomore at
Warren (Mich.) De La Salle, Morris
knew how talented he was. As a
lifelong Michigan fan who rejected
numerous other offers from better
programs to come to Ann Arbor —
including Nick Saban’s Alabama —
he was born for the job.
Most of the Wolverines’ fanbase
knew his name long before he set
foot on campus. In most of their
minds, he was going to be the
quarterback to usher in a new golden
age of Michigan football. It just
never panned out that way.
Fast forward to August 2016, at
Michigan’s team media day, and
another quarterback competition
rages on. But now Morris sits
alone at his locker, while a throng
of reporters first gathers around
redshirt sophomore Wilton Speight
and redshirt junior John O’Korn.
Morris didn’t beat Rudock for the
job last season, and now he’s being
written off as a distant third-place
finisher for the coming season.
By the time reporters finally
approach him — and when he speaks
to a slightly larger crowd a few weeks
later — it first appears that not much
has changed about the now-redshirt
junior. The confidence, the fire and
the devotion to football are all still
there. The familiar smirk even shows
itself when he says he’s capable of
being the starting quarterback, and
that he’s right there in the race, no
matter how the media views it.
But what is missing is the sense
of entitlement. The same player
that once implied that Rudock
would be taking not just his job but
also his “livelihood” now speaks
as a gracious competitor, not the
Wolverines’ Chosen One.
“I’m not really focused on just
being the starting quarterback and
making the perfect play,” he says.
“Other things in life matter.”
Morris’ path in Ann Arbor has not
gone the way most people expected.
The hotshot 18-year-old who was
supposed to be the face of the Brady
Hoke era has become a humbled and
hardened 22-year-old after enduring
years of public scrutiny. He’s had
rival high school crowds bitterly
taunt him, diehard Michigan fans
bark at him from behind keyboards,
and television cameras camp out on
his family’s street for all the wrong
reasons.
This was the same elite recruit
who arrived on campus with the
expectation to take the reins as soon
as he was ready, but he never quite
reached his ceiling. That’s why it’s
so interesting to hear how he sums
up his experience, just weeks before
he begins what could be his final
season at Michigan.
“It’s a dream come true for me,”
Morris says, “and I couldn’t ask for
anything more.”
* * *
Morris made his debut in his
first game on campus, against
Central Michigan on Aug. 31, 2013.
He wasn’t handed the quarterback
job — Devin Gardner was the well-
established starter — but in the
third quarter of a blowout game,
the jumbotron at Michigan Stadium
showed Hoke place his hand on the
back of Morris’ No. 7 jersey and send
him onto the field. He promptly led
his team right down the field on a
touchdown drive.
“It (was) very overwhelming,”
said
Jennifer
Morris,
Shane’s
mother. “I know I remember crying
when he ran through the tunnel for
the first time. To watch him and to
see his dream come true out there
was just unbelievable.”
Morris spent all of his first season
sitting behind Gardner before a
golden opportunity appeared at
the end of the season. Gardner
was ruled out for the Buffalo Wild
Wings Bowl against Kansas State
with a broken left foot sustained in
the regular-season finale against
Ohio State, and Morris got the call
to make his first start.
Despite losing to the Wildcats,
31-14, Morris completed 24 of 38
passes for 196 yards and showed
FootballSaturday, September 24, 2016
4
Shane Morris Stays Blue
Jacob Gase, Daily Sports Editor