The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MICHIGAN FOOTBALL ally to the most outstanding collegiate tight end, and the recipient is selected by a vote of the award's selection com- mittee. The 2015 winner will be an- nounced on Dec. 9, 2015, and will then be presented with the award live on Dec. 10, at The Home Depot College Football Awards Red Carpet Show on ESPNU. Other key dates include the an- nouncement of the 2015 Mackey mid- season watch list (Oct. 12), the Mackey semifinalists (Nov. 16) and the 2015 Mackey finalists (Nov. 24). SHANE MORRIS IS NOT CONCEDING ANYTHING IN QB BATTLE Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh called junior Shane Morris the Wolver- ines' top quarterback coming out of spring football. Plenty has changed at that position group since then, includ- ing the addition of fifth-year senior transfer and two-year Iowa starter Jake Rudock. Morris understands all about the competition. He also has a grasp of what he needs to do to come out of the battle on top, starting with leadership. "That's really it, proving I can lead the team," he said. "It's out-working everyone, and that's the way I've been my entire life. No one is going to out- work me in the quarterback room. That's how I am with everything in my life." He appreciates the autonomy given to quarterbacks in Harbaugh's system. "It's the ability for me to take control and put the team in the best play to be successful," Morris said. "They put a lot of responsibility on me, and they give me a lot of leeway. I really like that. It shows they trust me with the offense and shows that I know it. "I'm really excited about the oppor- tunity to lead the team and put us in the best play at the line of scrimmage, based on what I see." Morris found himself in a bad po- sition last season. Not only did he struggle in his one start, he became the focus of a nationwide discussion over concussions. While most quar- terbacks want to make national news, that wasn't what Morris had in mind. "I felt it got blown out of propor- tion, but that's the way the media is," Morris noted of the concussion con- troversy. "You really can't control the media. You just ignore it." That's not easy to do, when Michi- gan football is involved, he admitted. "It's huge … when anything hap- pens here, whether it's small or big, it's going to get blown up," he said. "People are going to talk about it, and people want to talk about it." The scrutiny over Morris' midseason "mild concussion" and his subsequent return to the same game certainly were not the only items on the nega- tive checklist in the final weeks of the previous coaching regime. But they seemed symptomatic of how things were spinning out of control, resulting in a 5-7 season. "A lot of stuff happened last year that didn't need to happen," Morris said. "It was blown out of proportion. Everything just kind of fell apart. I just stayed quiet and didn't really worry about it. We didn't bring it into the