The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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84 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2022 FOOTBALL PREVIEW "When I came in as a freshman, I had this false sense that I was better than a lot of people in front of me," Morris re- called. "Then I went up against our start- ing O-line with Jon Runyan at left tackle, Ben Bredeson at left guard, Cesar Ruiz at center, Mike Onwenu at right guard and Jalen Mayfield at right tackle. I was in for a very rude awakening. That's when I realized I wasn't as good as I thought I was. "Then, you had Kwity, Aidan Hutchinson and Mike Danna, who would actually hold their own against those guys. I was like, 'OK, I need to do better and be better.'" It hurt, he admit- ted. At the same time, it served a purpose. Though he played only one game in two years, he made the most of his other opportunities, earn- ing academic All- Big Ten honors twice. H e c o n t i n - ued to get after it in the weight room, too, get- ting stronger and better equipped to deal with Big Te n o ff e n s iv e lines. By spring 2021, he looked like a differ- ent person. His 6-foot-6 physique, once lanky, was now ripped, and he was ready to produce. "It definitely hurt [sitting], but I felt like I was meant to go through that … to sit down and reflect on who I was as a football player, who I was as a person and a young adult," he said. "I realized I had to take a backseat, but I'd never taken a backseat. Since my first-grade AAU team, I had never taken a backseat to anybody. "I felt like I needed that to happen in or- der for me to change my mentality, change my mindset. I felt like that was the best thing to happen." It helped to have others in his class to lean on. Though a self-described introvert, he didn't want to go it alone hundreds of miles from home … and he didn't have to. "Almost my whole freshman class was going through it. We were really in a foreign area," Morris recalled. "Quinten Johnson, DJ Turner, Chris Hinton. Giles Jackson, Gabe Newburg — we all talked about it." Turner and Hinton emerged last year, while Johnson made strides this spring. Jackson left for Washington, and Morris … well, he put his head down and continued to put in the work. After a COVID-shortened (and miser- able, he admitted) 2020 season, he and his teammates got a fresh start when defensive coordinator Don Brown left for Arizona and Mike Macdonald arrived from the Bal- timore Ravens. Macdonald was more focused on the big picture than the individuals in his first several weeks on the job, but Morris was determined to get his attention. By Week 2, head coach Jim Harbaugh was singling him out as a player to watch, just as Mor- ris hoped. "It occurred to me right when I knew there was going to be a coaching change," he said. "Coach Brown left, and when Coach Mac came in, I thought, 'This is my chance at another first impression. I get a refresh, a new start, a new coach — a new perception of me.' I wanted to make the best of it." A Year To Remember — But Just The Beginning That was how 2021 started. Morris "locked in," set out to improve every day and accomplished that goal. He fine-tuned his skills, became a versatile lineman who could play anywhere up front and started four games on the edge. He notched 17 tackles, a couple of pass break-ups at the line using his length, a shared sack and a tackle for loss, but most of all flashed incredible potential. Not long ago, he got a reminder of how it ended when he was in the airport ready- ing for a quick trip home. "Someone stopped me when I was walking to the gate," he recalled. "He said, 'Mike, I was at the Ohio State game [a 42-27 U-M win]. It was the best day of my life.' I told him, 'I appreciate it. It was the same for me, as well.'" His pass break-up on the edge against the Buckeyes negated what seemed des- tined to be a big play. A week later, he played more in the middle and helped shut down the Iowa running game in a 42-3 win, earning a Big Ten title with his teammates. After a coaching change at Florida State in 2017, Morris decommitted, deciding not to fol- low in his father's footsteps. He later joined the Wolverines' class of 2019 saying, "The difference was just something was calling me to Michigan." PHOTO BY EJ HOLLAND